Beneath A Starry Night Sky
by KAWAIINECKO
Summary: Laxus is feeling that something is wrong with lucy ever since the Tartaros fight ,so he sets his mind to find it out.While Lucy has been going backwards after the great loss she suffered in that fight, she then sets out on finding more keys and getting more powerful and Laxus helps her. Their relationship flourish on this journey but that does not go unnoticed by some people.
1. Chapter 1

A/N:Hello everyone I am new to is a fanfiction of all happened after the Tartaros Arc and after they disbanded the guild and then reunited you enjoy!

Chapter one

**LAXUS POV:**

The guild as always is in its uproar and Natsu and Gray are fighting,Erza is eating her cake and all the others are doing what they always do. There at the bar a certain celestial spirit mage is sitting alone.I always see her sitting in the same seat at the bar and always drinking her strawberry milkshake, but since Tartaros happened and the light of the fairies was never the same but she does her best to not show it though I can see that she is not well and I am not the only one who noticed, Gramps noticed that too, but he never really got an answer out of her cause everytime he asked her she always says it's nothing, and what really is bothering is that none of her teammates actually see that she is upset.

**NORMAL POV:**

**"**Luce let's go on a mission together!" screamed Natsu from across the guild, she turned around and smiled at him and shook her head"yeah let's". Natsu ran up to the request board and snatched a job request and went to Mira to approve it then he went and grabbed Lucy's hand and ran out of the door.

"Laxus, would you like to go on a mission?"Freed asked Laxus only for the Lightning mage not to even notice his presence, the green haired mage tried to get his attention but to no avail, Evergreen went up to the second floor to see what was holding her teammates so she went and saw that Laxus was staring at the guildhall's doors then tried to get his attention by calling out to him which to Freed's surprise she actually succeeded."Yes?", "Laxus, Freed asked if you wanted to go on a job?"said Ever, Laxus looked once again at the guildhall's doors and then nodded his head abd went and picked a job and got it approved and then left.

_When they finished the job_

Laxus and his team entered the guild fairy tail's way's 'by kicking the door open'.Laxus and his team went to the bar to order something to eat when a certain pink haired mage burst through the guild's doors yelling"Help somebody help me..."and after that he collapsed on the floor, the raijinshuu and team Natsu rushed to his side and Wendy went ahead to the infirmary telling them to get him up , team Natsu quickly pulled him up the stairs and onto one of the infirmary beds.

**LAXUS POV:**

This was beyond weird. We all waited for Wendy to come out and tell us what is wrong with the pink headed mage, moments later, the door opened and came the little blue haired girl out of the door and then took a deep breath, looked us in the eye while giving us her warm and gentle smile saying"Natsu will be fine. He got poisoned and so he will need time to rest."We all were very happy that our nakama is alright but then Mira cried out"Where is Lucy?!"Right then i remembered that Blondie went with him on a mission, the guild started to panic when a blue fur cat flew through the door crying like a maniac."Happy, do you know where is Lucy?" cried out Mirajane. The cat just cried more and between his sobs the whole guild managed to get two words "L-L-Lushie...Kidnapped..." and that is all you needed to have the whole guild on their feet and out the door, Wendy stayed behind with natsu while the others split into teams to try and find where she is. My team and I went on our own.I thought I would be able to sniff where they had kept her but as much as i tried it was futile. I wasn't able to locate her,on our way Freed said"This is all quite sudden.I mean why would they kidnap miss Lucy?!" "True that is quite sudden"added Evergreen."By the way Freed what are you gonna do with the key they gave us as a gift?" "Well I wanted to get it to Lucy. I mean you know she deserves it, afterall she was the first one to welcome us with open arms".They all nodded. True Blondie was the first to welcome us back after all we did, well after all I did.

**NORMAL POV:**

The thunder god tribe heard some noises and before they could even react they were hit with a spell that made them fall asleep. And so, the Thunder God Tribe was as well taken away.

**A/N**:Hope you guys enjoyed the first chapter, you have a nice day!


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Hello again everyone, the author here. I hope you guys are having a good day/night ,without further ado I present to you Chapter two of Beneath A Starry Night Sky...

**LAXUS POV:**

I slowly started to open my eyes, and to say I was surprised was an understatement, my hands were cuffed with magic seal stone and to my left was tied Freed and to my right Ever and Bix. Just like that The Raijinshuu was defeated. I heard some footsteps and quickly averted my eyes to the source of the sound, there stood a man wearing a cape and has his face covered. He went to my teammates and woke them up with water, the look of shock on their faces was evident, the man stood in front of me and then asked me a question I never thought I would be asked.

The man said with a deep voice:"Where is END?"

That indeed took us all by surprise. Freed cut in and said:"Why do you think we know where he is?"the man continued"Well aren't you fellas from fairy tail?" The Raijinshuu nodded their heads and the man continued"Rumor has it that END is in this guild so I ask again where is he?"The four mages in front of him didn't utter a word and they had a very good reason for they did not know what the hell he was talking about.

The man in front of them sighed and then mumbled"I don't like this way but I see that we might have to use it" Laxus heard what the man said and before he could say anything the man snapped his fingers and in front of them appeared a girl with a hood that is covering her face,but they easily could see that the girl was badly injured, Laxus growled"What the hell is this?!".Laxus didn't like where this was going, the man simply walked in front of the woman and slid the hood that was covering her face and revealed her face, the look of horror on the four mages was never fading as in front of them stood the girl who used to always have a smile on her face, the girl who was nicknamed the Fairies Light, all beaten up and wounded pretty badly, after the big reveal, the shocked expressions of the four mages was quickly replaced by anger, Bickslow said in a threatening tone"What the hell do you want from her?!" The man just faced them and said as coolly as ever"You weren't willing to give me answers maybe now you will..."

Laxus was about to get out of his chair when he simply couldn't move. The man eyed him from head to toe and then said"Well you all can't move from your chairs because I put a spell on you, and the longer you don't give me answers the longer the spells takes time to wear off", Ever said cautiously"we don't know anything about END please just let her go she has nothing to do with this".The man looked like he was thinking about something before he waved a hand in front of lucy and then a scream filled the whole room and her tears ran down her face like waterfalls. The four mages begged him to stop but he didn't, he continued on torturing the precious celestial mage while he raged on "GIVE ME ANSWERS DAMMIT! OR SHE DIES!"...

When he said those words, water started to flood from all around the place and then a blinding light appeared and there stood with all her glory,the long lost second mother of Lucy,Aquarius.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Hello minna, I hope you are enjoying the story... now let's continue.

**AT THE GUILD...**

Everyone was frantic for they have not only lost their precious celestial mage, but also the whole Thunder God Tribe. They were so busy planning on what to do and their plan of action and based on what the little exceed told them, there was nothing to start from as they got attacked when they were returning. Natsu was better now and is up and helping as much as he can to save his best friend, a lot of people mistook them as lovers but he really did see her as his little sister and he knew Lucy felt the same, the guild was so busy that they had not noticed the guild doors opening to reveal the newest members of Fairy Tail, a pink haired woman called out and asked them what was going on. Without even turning to see who she was, Macao answered"Lucy is missing, she got kidnapped and now the Thunder God Tribe is as well missing!". For an instant Macao did not realise the mistake he made, not until he felt the death aura behind him that caused the whole guild to stop in their tracks and slowly start to turn in the direction of the female voice.

Three males had death auras around them, one was a blue haired man while the other had black hair and the last one had brown/red hair like. They all growled at the same time:"WHO THE HELL DARED TAKE HER?" and the guild knew what was about to happen, because you see for these three mages that were Jellal , Midnight and Cobra, the celestial spirit mage was the pure angel they were proud to call her their nakama, as all three viewed her as their little sister, after getting the information about what happened from a very frightened blue cat, the trio walked out of the door and disappeared into the night leaving behind them a stunned guild, because they knew they cared for their little sister but the behaviour was still new to the whole guild.

**WITH LUCY AND THE THUNDER GOD TRIBE:**

The man, to say the least, had his jaw dropped at the sight in front of him... there was a mermaid that glared at him like he was death itself. Before he was even able to understand what was going on, a wave of water hit him and flew him across the room, Lucy felt the water beneath her so she struggled to open her eyes fully and when she did she could not believe what she was seeing in front of her, for there stood in front of her, the spirit she sacrificed, the spirit she cried over many nights and blamed herself for her death, stating that she was weak and that if she was stronger she wouldn't have lost her mother figure..."A-A-Aquarius" The mermaid looked back and said with a soft smile on her face"Long time no see little brat, now get up!" Lucy was about to stand but she fell right on the floor, the man was getting back up, the mermaid growled at him"Tch, why don't you lay down for a little longer HUH?" and with that she attacked him once again with her waves of water."You will face punishment soon enough, now Loke and Virgo". Both Loke and Virgo appeared beside her."Virgo go help Lucy and Leo you know what to do".Both of the spirits nod and they went to do what they were told, Leo beating the man pretty badly while Virgo helped Lucy."Hime are you able to stand?"Lucy looked at her spirit smiling weakly at her after nodding to her, the maid helped Lucy up so she stood on her legs and broke the seal stone magic cuffs. Then Lucy went to help the Thunder God Tribe but stopped when she heard Virgo gasp."Hime your back!", just then Lucy noticed the blood prickling from her back, she smiled softly at her spirit and said"Let's help the others first."

The Thunder God Tribe were left speechless by what was happening in front of them, it was not enough that Lucy's spirits popped out from nowhere and started attacking the man and now Lucy was putting their health in front of hers, she hurried and as much as she could to take the seal stones off of them and asked them if they were okay, she was the only one was that kind with them ever they joined back, sure they were forgiven but that does not mean they were welcomed with parties and such. At that moment Lucy turned her back to them to go and check on her spirits when they noticed and understood why the maid gasped when she saw her back, it was brutally slashed open as though if she was whipped a whole dar, they looked up again to the scene in front of them, the anger boiled up by Lucy's back soon faded away when they took in the sight in front of them. The maid spirit was brutally slapping and beating the man so bad that he was screaming and pleading for her to stop, Lucy then called out to her spirit and told her"Virgo, punishment time!" and with that her spirit had a wicked grin on her face and threw the man on her shoulders and bowed to lucy before disappearing from in front of her with mischief dancing in her eyes.

Lucy looked back at Aquarius and then ran to her and hugged her while she sobbed like a maniac, the mermaid held her close to her and then sighed and said"You have changed a lot in the last two years Lucy, where is the girl that used to call me in the middle of her bath?You annoying brat!"Lucy giggled but did no attempt to let go of the mermaid"You know Leo told me what you felt, it was not your fault and it will never ever be. Now that my time here has come to an end I just want to tell you that my key has once again appeared." Lucy looked up at her after finally letting her go and said"Then I will do whatever I can to bring you back. I promise!","Don't go making promises you can't keep brat BUT I have no doubt you will. Till we meet again Lucy" said Aquarius with a smile on her face as she started to fade, Lucy went to hug her again but she faded before she reached her, and Lucy was caught from falling by Loke as he comforted the sobbing mage telling her over and over again that it was not her fault before the blonde in his hands gave in to the darkness and fell unconscious.

With that Loke disappeared leaving the blonde in the care of Laxus and his team mates. Loke also left them wondering what did the mermaid mean when she said it was not Lucy's fault? and when did she lose her precious spirit?With those thoughts in mind, they all headed back home, to their guild, after gathering their stuff and grabbing Lucy's keys, all keen on not imaginning on what was happening to the man now.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

**With Laxus and the others:**

The group went out of the old building to find themselves somewhere they have no clue where.

"Where are we? This does not seem familiar at all!" Exclaimed Bixlow.

"Indeed, we are not in Fiore. That bastard must have teleported us here."Said Laxus after he sniffed the air to confirm that they are not in Magnolia."Let's keep walking, I smell a village nearby."

"Yeah, we also need to get Lucy to a hospital soon." said Ever.

"Yeah she is losing quite a lot of blood" commented Freed.

Laxus looked at the unconscious girl in his arms and his mind kept going to the first time she approached them.

_It was after the fight with Grimoire Heart, they were getting themselves bandaged up. Ever was not being so gentle in wrapping the bandages, well could you blame her she is no expert. And then they sensed someone approach them and looked only to be met by brown chocolate orbs that is staring directly into their eyes."Do you need help Evergreen with patching them up?" Evergreen just looked at the blonde rather confused and while stuttering managed to say"Um-ye-yeah... that would be great" The blonde then went to patch up Bickslow and she did so ever so gently."Hey cospla-Lucy I mean, Um sorry about what almost happened last time."the blonde looked straight in the eye looking deep in thought"I honestly don't know what you are talking about Bickslow." Bickslow was not even focused on what she said. She was looking at him, in his eyes and did not flinch or even get scared that he might hurt her."About the fight when-" "It's been long forgotten. Now I am done, be careful not to do anything and strain yourself, and hope you get better soon." The mage just looked at her like he was seeing an angel in front of him, she was smiling like nothing just really happened, like they didn't just wipe out a dark guild."Oi Evergreen, stop doing that!" shouted a very annoyed Laxus."It's to stop the bleeding now sit your ass down."Ever countered back. Lucy approached them and lightly tapped Ever on her shoulder. The fairy mage turned back to face the girl while the girl simply asked "May I?" The Fairy mage stared at her then at her extended hand and smiled like she was just saved from something horrible"Yes , please". Evergreen handed the bandages to Lucy. The blonde then approached the lightning mage and she gently started to wrap his shoulder. Laxus couldn't do anything but stare at her, here she was bandaging him up while she shouldn't even be next to him because of what he did to her. The girl in front of him really was out of this world. He wanted to apologise for all the stuff he did before they heard a roar and the world they knew got thrown into the hands of a dark dragon with blue marks on his body, Acnologia._

Laxus couldn't help but think that this girl's heart knows no boundaries.

They were walking when they stumbled upon a village, well more like a city that is connected to another city and another and another and so on, they approached a man that was working in a shop and asked him if there is a hospital nearby. "Well yes just continue down this road. And I hope your lady friend gets better, what happened to her?" The man asked as he eyed the girl"Attacked by a wild animal" replied Freed. They knew better than to tell the truth in a foreign land and to a stranger."Oh dear, hope she gets better then." They all thanked the man and went their way, they reached the hospital and were about to enter it when a guard shouted at them to stop."What is Wrong?"asked Freed.

"Who are you and what are you doing here? I have never seen you before." "Well we were just passing by and our friend got attacked and we came to the hospital." Replied Bicks with his tongue sliding out of his mouth, his signature move.

When he did that the guard was able to see his guild mark on his tongue and quickly called for back up and cornered the 4 mages in front of them "What are you fairy scum doing in The Alvarez Empire?!"

All four mages shouted in unison"THE EMPIRE OF WHAT?!"

**With the emperor…**

_"Zeref-sama come here, I found a beautiful flower."_

_said the little girl running up to him."Well I'm coming so stop running before you trip and hurt your leg."Zeref said smiling at his little companion, she led him through the forest and showed him the flower."Isn't it pretty Zeref-sama?"said the little girl."Yes it is quite mesmerizing!" said Zeref as he looked at the flower, he then turned to his companion" Happy birthday little fairy" he showed the girl a little box in his hand."awww Zeref-sama, you shouldn't have!"replied the little girl looking at him with eyes that said that she only said this out of manners and didn't mean anything of it, he then chuckled and lowered himself to her level."Well open it" He said as he handed her the little box. She opened it and squealed with joy and held him in a tight embrace"Thank you so much Zeref-nii, oops I'm sorry I called you Zeref-nii"said the girl looking down after she let him go. Zeref then ruffled her hair"It's alright little fairy, it would be an honor to be your big brother."She looked at him with a smile that shone better than all the stars and with eyes that screamed happiness as she once again hugged him._

Zeref woke up and sighed,'This dream again'. His train of thoughts was soon interrupted by a knock on his door,it was his loyal butler "Heka-sama, may I please have five minutes from your time? There is a problem".Zeref sighed"yes come in." The butler then proceeded after he entered the room"Heka-sama, there are some fairy tail members here in front of a hospital demanding to be entered as they have a comrade in their arms in need of immediate help" Zeref was quite shocked at the news, he smiled a menacing smile"Oh really, and who are they?" asked Zeref. "The Thunder God Tribe and another mage, she has blonde hair and I believe her last name was Heartfilia"."Zeref's eyes almost popped out of his head, all these fairy mages on his land, something must have definitely happened."Let them enter the hospital, and arrange for a ship to take them back" answered Zeref. "But Heka-sama-"."Just do it!It's not yet time anyway." replied Zered after he rudely interrupted his butler."As you wish Heka-sama".

The butler left Zeref alone, 'so the Thunder God Tribe and a Heartfilia, Huh! WAIT WHAT?' Thought Zeref as he finally let the words sink in.'I need to see them now!'and with that he got up to prepare himself.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Hello everyone, am finally back from two long weeks of finals. Please tell me what you think of the story so far. I would really appreciate and hope you enjoy this chapter.

_..._

It has been a week since the kidnapping of Lucy Heartfilia and the disappearance of The Thunder God Tribe and their leader, and it is easy to say that the guild was not itself, for Natsu and Gray did not fight, Cana did not drink and the most shocking thing, Erza did not eat cake!

But these people were not affected as much as three men, that had bags under their eyes,and it is noticeable that they lost weight for they have spent the entire week, day and night, searching for their little sister, but to no avail.

As with Laxus and the rest, well it has been a week since the hospital accepted them in and took care of Lucy but the celestial spirit mage has for now not woken up, and to say her companions were uneasy was an understatement for they as well did not sleep much this past week out of fear that they would do something to them or to her because they were not in a safe land and the fact they got accepted was a shocking thing that kept them on their guard.

And an afraid man, though he held a lot of a power, was hiding behind a wall watching the blonde's companions watching over her. After a sigh, he decided to take action after also scolding himself 'for the love of god Zeref, you are an emperor! stop hiding behind a wall and do something!'. With determination in his head, he went for her room only to enter another when the fairy woman looked his way.'Okay, this is not working. I need a plan, I do not want to be discovered by these mages of who I really am in this country'. And so he went into the staff room and dressed as a nurse and walked out. He passed them and as he held the door's knob he thought that maybe someone would stop him but no one did so he continued inside. It was not the time for visits for which he was grateful. He walked into the room and closed the door behind him. As he walked closely to her bed he was feeling more nervous than ever and when he reached her bed he felt as his whole world crashed down. There laid, his little fairy, badly bruised and bandages covering her abdominal and entire back, he couldn't believe his eyes, after such a long time he was finally able to see her but in this state!not awake and badly bruised! He then swore to take revenge on whoever did this to her. But he was rather confused,'why was she with Fairy Tail members? this does not make sense'.

As he tried to touch her, he heard sounds outside."I'm sorry I will enter now and check on how she is doing." said the nurse."But a nurse just went in to check on her."said Laxus back to the nurse in front of him.'Oh shit!' thought Zeref as he was trying to find a way to escape and with no luck in finding a way out he resolute to jumping out the window before he heard the nurse saying "WHAT!?" and then they all rushed in and saw the window open. Laxus quickly hurried there and tried to sniff out the intruder but he could't, he was gone without a trail behind.

'Damn that was close, but I still don't know what actually happened to Lucy and it seems I cannot ask her companions about it, well not ask but extract information out of them. But my act of kindness towards Fairy Tail may prove to have use to me, this way they would let their guard down and give me the perfect chance to attack them.'thought Zeref fleeing in the shadows of the night.

It passed another two days since that incident and the blonde's companions were more protective over her. Everytime someone were to enter her room they would investigate him, be it a nurse or a doctor, and would demand to show their identification card and that really irritated those who were being investigated and interrogated. At noon, they investigated the nurse in front of them and made her show her ID card and then they let her in. She quickly came running out of the room and called out to a doctor."Is something wrong with her?" asked Laxus, worry evident in his tone."No she is completely fine. She just woke up".

With that, relief washed on the faces of The Raijinshuu, for they were really worried for their little guildmate and they couldn't wait to bring her back home and for them to also return to Fiore.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

**Hello everyone, hope you are having a good day. Well Imma give you a gift. A kinda long chapter. Hope you enjoy.**

It has been two days since Lucy woke up and Laxus and the rest would not leave her side. They even slept in her room and when they heard the slight noise of pain, they would rush to her side asking if she was alright, if they needed to call a doctor or a nurse and she would always assure them that she is fine and it's only a slight pain but they would never listen to her and end up calling the nurse to check upon her.

Today was the day she had the permission to leave. She was more than ready to leave when she knew she was in the Alvarez Empire, but to her surprise everyone was very nice to her, even though they refused to heal her with magic and settled on the old fashion way, but she was still grateful they helped her. But this particular nurse had her feeling very weird, he would come in her room and start taking her temperature and stuff like that, but then he would start asking her questions about why she was here and why she was with the fairy tail mages and when she told him she was one, it seemed like he was disappointed a bit, all in all it was pretty weird. But today has got to be the weirdest of all.

He came in as usual to check up on her. The raijinshuu were out getting their stuff from the hotel they were staying at at night when they couldn't stay with Lucy and grabbing some stuff for Lucy and buying some outfits for her, they were grateful they still had money and that their attacker did not take it away.

"How are you feeling today?"He asked.

"I'm fine, thank you for asking." replied Lucy, though she had a hunch this conversation was not over.

"So, can I ask you a question?"he asked.

"Sure go ahead." the blonde replied, she simply did not want to be rude,but what he asked her had her shook.

"Do you remember anything from when you were little, like before the age of seven?"He asked with a curious look in his eyes.

Lucy started to panic, why would he need to know such a thing after all?"I'm sorry but why do you ask?"

"Oh the tests showed that you suffered a bit of amnesia and I am just checking if that was true."he said.

"Oh... then really there is no reason to doubt the tests because it is true." Lucy was a bit relieved to know that it was just for check up but still she had her doubts.

"Oh okay then whe-"

"We're back" yelled Evergreen when she walked through the door and Lucy thanked Mavis because she did not want to know what he wanted to ask next."Welcome back"said Lucy with a smile of relief on her face.

"Are you ready to go Blondie?"

"Yes I am and for the millionth time, you are blond too Laxus."retorted Lucy with a small scowl on her face and he chuckled at this, he then walked out of the room with the rest behind him ready to leave this place, on their way out the nurses and doctors would look at them with a scowl on their faces and disdain but when they would see Lucy they would look at her and wave or smile or wish her well and some nurse actually told her if she was here and if she had trouble to come back here for treatment. The raijinshuu were really left flabbergasted,I mean people would not even look at them but then they would spot Lucy and come wish her well.

'Damn Blondie wherever you go, you just force people to like you without even meaning to.'

They boarded the ship and sat down around on it, there was not a single ship going to Fiore, because they never need anything from it, so by an order from the empire they readied a ship to take them and they were glad to leave this place, but once the ship sailed, a certain lightning dragon slayer did not mind to stay there forever, even if in prison , Lucy seeing this told him to come lay his head down on her lap, because it would feel better, he was hesitant at first but then complied and he was grateful that he did because he felt a lot better with his head on her lap for two reasons, one because he was actually feeling better and two he had a very nice view*ahem*of two large mounds*ahem* just above his head.

It will take them two days to arrive to Fiore, so they had plenty of time to chat, Freed came up to Lucy with a curious look on his face"Lucy-san, what did Aquarius-san mean when she said that her key once again appeared and that something was not your fault?"inquired Freed.

The blonde sighed , not stopping running her fingers through the lightning slayer's hair, looked up at Freed then at the sky and answered

"It happened two years ago, in our fight with Tartaros"They all looked at her to continue what she was saying, with another sigh she continued"when you were all trapped because of Mard Geer's spell, I was the only one who wasn't affected, so that brought all the demons on me and attacked me to try and take me down so I summoned spirit after spirit to fight alongside me, but that also took away my energy, then while I was being attacked by this demon called Jackal, I had already open Loke and Virgo's gates simultaneously and when he blew me off into the river, I felt your presence, I remembered who I am and who I am fighting with, so I summoned a third spirit which was Aquarius" They all gasped, keeping two gates open required a marvelous power, but three! That was something unimaginable.

"So with keeping three gates open it took a lot of me and the demons had the upper hand, so they attacked and injured Loke and Virgo enough to send them back to the Celestial spirit world and then they injured Aquarius, then Jackal started to close in on me and just before he could kill me Aquarius pushed him back with her water, the other demon had already left, she then told me how to save you guys from the spell." Lucy looked away tears threatening to fall from her eyes, Evergreen asked her in a low whisper"How?"

"By sacrificing her to summon the celestial spirit king so he can lift the spell on you guys and fight the Underworld king."

They all stood where they were, no one moved, no one spoke, no one knew what to say, here the girl in front of them lost something so valuable and she did not tell anyone, sure Natsu and the other slayers lost their parents, but this loss was something more grave than the others, because Lucy was the one who did it, and she did it to save her friends, her family but she ended up losing her second mother, and at that all of them looked at her with a new respect and made a small promise to help her find Aquarius's key.

"Why did you not tell anyone Lucy?"Evergreen said with tears running down her face, she may not know Lucy well but she knew how much she loved her spirits and considered them family.

"I didn't want to make someone feel guilty when it was only my fault." they all gasped at what she said.

"This is not your fault."Bickslow's voice had a hint of anger.

"It is, if I was strong enough I would have been able to stop them without sacrificing Aquarius."

"You do knew that you wouldn't be able to even if you had your third origin Lucy, because it was two against one and even if you were able to you would have to face off all the other demons, even I could not do it, but what you did Lucy shows how strong you are, you carried this grief with you for two years and never blamed anyone in the guild, so I swear on my strength and my honor that I will help you in finding Aquarius's key." Laxus vowed to Lucy with determination in his eyes.

Lucy looked down with gratitude in her eyes and she smiled that smile that could brighten a whole room"Thank you, I would love that and appreciate it."

Evergreen, Bickslow and Freed all looked at each other and also promised they would help her. Lucy looked at them with gratitude and thanked them with a smile.

_with the emperor in his palace_

"Tell me what you have for me?"asked the emperor.

"Well Heka-sama, she has no memory of when she was young, and before the age of seven. The tests showed she has not amnesia and no trace of a hit in the head."replied the nurse.

"Meaning someone put a spell on her to make her forget what happened when she was young, so it is as I suspected."

"Yes Heka-sama."

"Did they leave?"

"Yes Heka-sama."

"Okay go and see my butler to give you the jewels that were promised."

"Thank you Heka-same, glad to be of your service Heka-sama."

The nurse kneeled in front of him and left,the emperor rose from his seat on the throne and went outside on the balcony.

'So that's why she couldn't remember me when she saw me that day at the second attempt of me sneaking in'

'What could have happened to Lucy for someone to put an amnesia spell on her?What did you do Layla' Zeref thought looking at the sky then he said out loud "Was it because you wanted her to forget me?"

_At the guild_

_It has been a week and four days and they still have no news on Lucy and the rest, Natsu was frustrated because he deemed it as his responsibility to protect his best friend and he felt as though he failed miserably, as for the trio, they had not eaten nor slept well and the guild started to worry about them. Jellal had bags clearly evident under his eyes and his hair a mess, Cobra has almost his eyes closing but then he would jump to wake himself up, as for Midnight he became skinnier than he was before and had bags under his eyes as well._

They were all doing their business, most of them sulking and the rest looking nowhere, they did not even notice the guild doors opening.

"My god what happened here?" asked a certain female.

"Some members went missing from a week ago and we still haven't found them"replied Macao, taking a sip from his mug before stopping midway, there was no mistaking it, that sweet and soothing voice, that calming presence, he then slowly started to turn towards the guild's doors and what he saw had him drop his mug ,the sound of the crash had the rest of the guild turning to see what was going on and the view of the people in front of the guild's doors had some of them crying, some widening their eyes and then rubbing them to check if what they were seeing was true, and well the rest, specifically the trio and team Natsu running and stumbling on the chairs and tables in their way but no one cared, for their celestial spirit mage has returned with the others. They all jumped on her to hug her, but the raijinshuu stepped in front of her.

"Move now Laxus if you know what is best for you."glared Jellal at the blond.

Laxus merely snickered"She needs rest, she still has wounds, and if all you bunch jumped on her you would crush her."

"It's fine Laxus I can take care of myself"popped Lucy from above his shoulder putting her hands on his back well because she was on her tiptoes for he was quite tall.

The three men were suspicious of this behaviour, since when the Laxus Dreyar cared about the wellbeing of anyone but his team? But they did not think about it much and rushed to hug their little sister, partner and team member,then Lucy made rounds of hugs to everyone and they all asked her questions about how she is and what happened, for the questions about her health she answered and for the latter, she did not know how to answer.

The master stood on the second floor's railing and called for the used to be missing members"Lucy, Laxus and the Raijinshuu, come to my office immediately" he then jumped off the railing and went into his office. The called members went up to the second floor and into the master's office, he casted a spell to make the room soundproof so no one from outside can hear them, he asked the question that was clearly on his mind since they arrived.

"Where have you been?"

They all looked at each other rather uncomfortably for they do not know how to answer that question, then Lucy answered"Well master we were kidnapped by a man and taken hostage on... well on... enemy ground."

The master looked deep in thought, and then narrowed his eyes at her"What enemy?"his deep voice warning that he does not want an around the bush answer.

"The Alvarez Empire jiji."Laxus responded nonchalantly.

...

...

...

...

"WHATTTTTTTTTTT!"

The guild was in its usual uproar but that came to a stop when they felt the ground rumble and knew that it was not a good sign, which usually meant that gramps was now in his giant size.

"Mater calm down, nothing happened to us."said the voice of reason in their group ,Freed.

"Nothing has happened to you?!YOU GOT KIDNAPPED AND STAYED ON ENEMY GROUND FOR A WEEK AND A HALF AND YOU WANNA TELL ME NOTHING HAPPENED TO YOU?"

"Jiji relax will you nothing happened, they treated Lucy's wounds and got us back here even after they knew we were fairy tail wizards"

At this, the master calmed down a bit, he then asked them what happened there and they told him everything not leaving a single thing out.

"So what happened to the guy who kidnapped you?"asked the master.

"Well Virgo took care of him, but she told me he escaped her after a while and she couldn't trace him, it turns out he uses teleportation magic and able to produce some sleeping spell, so that's why he was able to get us and couldn't do anything when Virgo and Loke were attacking him."Lucy answered after recalling what her spirit told her and how she demanded she get punished for letting an enemy escape and how she was evidently disappointed when Lucy refused, that lead to Lucy thinking that she let him go on purpose to get a punishment. But as quickly as that thought came it went, Lucy knew her spirits would never do something like that no matter how weird and peculiar they are.

"So he kidnapped you, used Lucy as leverage and tortured her in front of you then Aquarius appeared and rescued you along with other spirits, and up until now that I know the sacrifice Lucy made when Tartaros attacked, but the man's purpose was to find E.N.D. and he heard a rumor that said that he is in our guild?"The master questioned.

They all nodded their heads, and then master proceeded"Lucy I want to thank you for the sacrifice you made that time, you really saved us all and for that you have my deepest gratitude and I will help you every way possible."

"Thank you master."

"As for the matter at hand I will need to look into it more but we cannot alert the guild of this, for now don't stay alone."

"With all due respect master but can I say something?"said Lucy.

They all looked at her and with a sign from the master to continue, she said"Wouldn't it be better if we told the guild what the problem is but leave out the rumor? That way if they got attacked they would be prepared."

The master looked at her and then at the others and nodded his head"Indeed it would be best, thank you my child."

The celestial spirit wizard smiled at him and he hopped of his desk and went out of the door to stand on the railing of the second floor.

"SHUT UP YOU BRATS."

This has the whole guild quiet and paying attention at their master. The master explained what was going on and the news had the guild enraged and wanting to fight off who the hell hurt their nakama, and the look on the trio's faces and team Natsu when the master tolled what happened to Lucy was something that would make the demons of Tartaros crawl in a whole and wish to die. After that the master advised his children to stay with someone else for safety and they started making living arrangements with other members.

By that time Lucy went home to relax a bit cause she was very much still in a bit of a pain, she did not talk with anybody about living arrangements because she already knew who would be coming over , and not five minutes passed before the doorbell rang and she went to answer the door. The sight in front of her was expected, but their faces made her feel really guilty about what happened. Sure it was not her fault but she still felt it was because of her.

Jellal, Midnight and Cobra stood at her doorstep waiting to be let in. She moved out of the way and let them in closing the door behind them. She then went to the cabinet, took out some pillows and blankets and gave it to them, went to the kitchen to prepare some dinner and then back to them to give them their dinner and then to the kitchen for some chamomile tea to relax them a bit.

"From the distant look in your eyes, you are hiding something".Jellal said.

"The fact you know me so well scares me but you are right, I am hiding something, but I can't say what it is because master told us not to."replied Lucy.

They all nodded their head and then Midnight asked"Is it something that will hurt you?"

"No."

"Good."all three replied, and just when they wanted to ask her another question the doorbell rang. Lucy stood puzzled because her team never uses her door to enter and the trio knowing that went to get the door themselves but when they opened it, they were quite shook, in front of them stood the raijinshuu and their leader.

"What are you doing here?"asked Cobra.

"We are here to spend the night with Lucy-san."replied Freed, then the trio let them in because they thought more people is better to protect Lucy, so they sat down on the floor and Lucy handed the others some tea and just as they were gonna ask her a question, Lucy's window opened and in flew the blue exceed with his partner, and Gray from the chimney as well while Erza just appeared next to Lucy by some magical means, the thunder god tribe were a little terrified of what is playing out in front of them and even more so when Lucy didn't seem bothered by it, as if she got used to it.

"Yo, Lucy why are they here?"asked Natsu.

"The same reason you are here."replied Lucy.

"Are they here to eat from your fridge and sleep in your bed with you too?"asked Natsu.

At this Lucy blushed like crazy, the trio looked like they wanted to murder Natsu and a low growl reverberated from a certain Lightning dragon slayer, Cobra being him already had heard his soul and knows a truth that he refuses to admit about this dragon slayer.

"No Natsu they are here to spend the night just like master ordered, and when will you stop eating my food and sneaking into my bed?"

Now this had the trio looking ready for murder only this time a certain dragon slayer joined them, as to why Laxus was not even sure, but he just felt extremely irritated by Natsu,and this also left his team quite curious.

XXX

_It was a fearsome war, glares were being shared, threats were being made, and all in all, it was something beyond unimaginable. Lucy clenched her teeth and tried to focus on her magic, but that was hard with all the pressure surrounding her and especially since her enemy was very powerful and all her allies were down, so she focused all her magic on one point and made the hit._

"woooooooooooo, you did it Lucy!"cheered team Natsu.

Lucy has successfully hit the ball in the goal and thus ending the little game of football they played in her house, how did they do it?They moved all the furniture away and lined two goals on the opposite sides of her apartment. They made bets on the game,that the team who loses has to go on a job picked by the winning team, and of course team Natsu lost big time, but they still cheered for Lucy for she was a team with the trio, to make it fair that the three teams consisted of four people, and yes they considered Happy one of them so team Natsu consisted of him, Natsu ,Gray and Erza.

Now that Lucy won , her team gets to pick for both the losing teams a job to do together, knowing fully well the combo of Natsu and Laxus is going to be hilarious. Laxus was the one who was meant to block Lucy's attack but for some unknown reason he couldn't do it, and when questioned about it by his team he said he just wasn't into it, but anyone who saw how he earlier played knows pretty much he is really into it.

It was now seven in the morning and these people never got an ounce of sleep, so after celebrating a bit for Lucy's victory, they all crashed on the floor.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

It has been a week since they got back, and all was going well, nobody got attacked and they all seemed relieved that they were all right and that the Alvarez empire actually did nothing but help them.

Still, this left a sour taste in the master's mouth, he could not believe that the empire did not have another motive, a hidden one, but for now he was just happy that his grandson is alive and good, and that his children are well and they all got back to be in good health.

Lucy just chilled this week, slept in, ate some ice cream, watched tons of movies, and took longer than usual showers, and all the while, handling the trio and her team, who are right now at the guild fighting over who gets to take her on a job.

"You always go with her, it's our right to take her this time."Cobra reasoned.

"We are her team, so of course we always go on jobs with her."yelled Titania.

The rest of the guild was watching this unfold in front of them, and all grinning and some murmuring about how no one wants to leave the light of the fairies alone for a second.

"Erza, honey, please let Lucy go with us on a mission we wanna spend some time with her, we missed her."Jellal tried to reason with his beloved, but he knew why Titania does not want her to leave, she missed her little sister.

How wrong could he be, on the inside, Erza was livid that he wants to take Lucy on a job with them and not her, sure she knew that Lucy does not mean anything like that to him, that she was only his little sister, well like one, but she could not help it, Lucy was beautiful, and all the guys tried to get her be their girl, but she refused each one, and what bothered her more, was that Jellal shows Lucy a side of him no one else knows, all the trio do the same, when Lucy is with them, they are like different people. So she refused to let Lucy go.

The master was watching them from the bar and he honestly took pity on the trio because they were really desperate to have some time with her, and the look on Lucy's face said it all, she really wants to go on a job with the trio but she did not know how to tell her team,so he outed to settle this argument.

"Well I think it's healthy for the trio to go on a job with Lucy."the master said.

Team Natsu and the trio along with Lucy looked at him, and he continued"They will make up for the lost time and she will be protected by them if she got attacked."

"But master-"Natsu tried to talk the master out of this decision, but the master quickly cut in"No Natsu, just like you all missed her, they did too, so when she comes she will go with you then."

Midnight, who was silent the whole time the argument unfolded in front of him, pointed a finger to team Natsu and mocked"Ha! Team natsu loses and the trio win, come Lucy let's go pick a job."

As he grabbed Lucy's hand and dragged her to the request board, team Natsu was left shook,that was the first time Midnight acted this way so they did not know how to react to it, not only them, but the whole guild. In truth, in front of Lucy, Midnight was so childish she sometimes felt like she was older than him even tho it's the other way around, he would always demand her attention,make her food and sometimes ask her to make him some, annoy the hell out of her, and whenever a guy tries to make a move on her,he would use his powers on them and they end up having nightmares for months, Lucy suspected that he might have feelings for her, but that thought quickly dissipated when he confessed to her that he is attracted to people of the same sex, and she was happy for him that he opened up about his feelings and of course the rest of the trio already knew and supported him all the way.

Now there they were trying to pick a job, when he began talking to her about his special someone, that he still not told her who, and she listened to everything he said, she enjoyed these moments a lot.

"So last night I was with my special person and we were having dinner, when he asked me a question I was not ready to answer."said Midnight.

"And what was it?"asked Lucy.

"He asked me if I wanted to move in with him."He said looking at her for any reaction when she turned and faced him"And what do you think about it?you think you are ready for it now?"asked Lucy with her signature smile gracing her face.

"I...uh-I.. don't know, I mean I really like him but I don't feel ready to take that step yet."

"It's understandable, you have been with him for only three months, so your decision is wise, but you know I will support you no matter what."smiled Lucy at him as he smiled back"plus I don't know that special person so until I do you will not be allowed to move in with him. I need to know if you are safe with him first."

"No you don't, you are just angry that Jellal and Cobra know who he is and you don't."smirked Midnight at her pout.

"Well It's not fair but it was worth a try."at that, Midnight laughed and they proceeded to pick a request, soon the others joined them.

"Oy Lu, this is a perfect one, take down a dark guild on the outskirts of clover town, and the reward is three silver keys and 500,000 jewels."said Jellal as he looked on the job request.

They all agreed to it and went to Mira to approve of it, then they agreed to meet at the train station in one hour, on her way out she stumbled upon the raijinshuu and their leader coming home from a mission.

"Hey guys, how was your mission?"

"Boringggg, bossman did all the work and left nothing to us."answered Bickslow with a frown.

"What Bickslow means to say that it was easy. And where are you going Lucy-sama, if you don't mind me asking?"asked Freed.(after knowing what Lucy did in Tartaros, his respect for her deepened, that is why he is using sama instead of san)

"Well I'm off to a job right now with the trio, and I told you many times Freed-san that you can call me Lucy."

Freed blushed at that"well then, you must as well call me Freed, Lucy-sam..uhh..Lucy."

The blonde nodded at that and then turned her head towards Evergreen"I'm sorry Ever but we have to postpone our girls out till after the job, is that okay?"

Well Laxus, Freed and Bickslow were quite shocked about that, they did not know Lucy and Ever were going out on a girls day.

The Fairy mage just smiled and nodded her head"It's okay hun, till then."

"Oy Blondie before we forget, we got a key as a reward and we don't know what to do with it, you want it?"

The little celestial mage beamed at that and eagerly nodded her head yes and bowed several times and thanked them, they all looked at her amused and smiled at her. Freed then gave her the key."So Lulu, whose key is that?"inquired Ever.

"This is the key to Corvus the crow, do you want to watch me do a contract with him?"

They were all intrigued to know how the contract is made so they all nodded their heads and she continued

"I am linked to the path to the world of celestial spirits!

Now! O Spirit, answer my call and pass through the Gate!

Gate of the Crow, I open thee! Corvus."

A bell sound was heard and a flash of silver light was seen and then a man with black jet hair, piercing black eyes, toned body,light skin appeared. He was wearing some tight black leather jeans with black boots and a black leather jacket over his bare chest, and two crows were accompanying him, one was on his right shoulder and the other on his left. He stood tall and proud, but he was not as tall as Laxus.

"Well hello miss, my name is Corvus."

Lucy was still shocked by how beautiful the spirit was, she just nodded, but then quickly snapped out of her trance and stood straight,"Well Hello Corvus,my name is Lucy, would you like to have a contract with me?"

"Lucy?! As in princess Lucy! yes! I wish if you would become my master."

"That would be amazing, but please do not refer to me as your master, you can call whatever you want but master, I am your friend after all."She smiled at him.

"So the rumors were true, there really is a kind celestial spirit mage such as yourself, well then princess, I am free whenever you need me, I can open my own gate if I sense that you are in trouble, and I use stealth magic and shadow magic and can command the crows, do you need anything from me now princess?"

Lucy only looked at him and just shook her head no"No thank you Corvus, you may return now."

With that, the spirit disappeared back to the celestial spirit word.

"Phew, wow, he was hot."said Evergreen while fanning herself. The guys just looked at her , disbelief evident in their eyes"What! I am still a woman you know, I have eyes that work really well, and when I see a hot man, I can say he is a hot man and wipe that stupid grin of your face Bickslow,I know what you are thinking and if you say anything to Elfman I will kill you."

Bickslow's grin was long gone after they saw the blonde's state.

"Um Lucy are you okay?"Freed looked at her concerned and Laxus came closer to see if she was in pain because of her injuries.

"Mavis help me, I felt like I was melting under his gaze."thought Lucy out loud, at that the lightning dragon slayer scowled."I know right, his eyes look straight into your soul."Ever added.

Now the guys knew of Laxus's little crush on the stellar mage, he never said anything to them about it, but when you spend your days stealing quick glances at her from the second floor, even a blind man could see it, so they outed to help him.

"Nah, he wasn't that good looking, I mean who wears a leather jacket nowadays?"

"Are you blind Bicks, he has it all."

"But Ever, his appearance does not deem him as someone trustable!"

"And Freed, since when appearance had anything to do with trust?"asked Lucy while eying the rune mage from head to toe, and that's when he knew, he f*cked up. Nobody talks badly of celestial spirits in front of a celestial mage, and specially Lucy, so the rune mage was now squirming in his place wanting to get snatched away from the blonde's intense glare and luckily for him, a lightning dragon slayer helped him.

"Yeah I get your point, he does remind me of that guy that dressed like him and ended up robbing your apartment."

At that, the celestial mage softened her eyes and the rune mage was able to breathe properly again."sorry Lucy, didn't mean anything by it."

"No worries, it's all good, now I have to go so I'll see you guys when I get back."

"Hey Blondie, care to take a mission with us when you get back?"

"Sure! see ya"and she ran off. When she was out of sight, a seith mage came to tease"Wow bossman, you were able to talk to her without stutteri-"Unfortunately for him, he wasn't able to finish what he was saying because he got electrocuted.

"Oh my, so the girl you have been pining over is Lucy?"asked Ever shocked as ever.

"Keep your voice down"snarled Laxus at her"and...yeah"now that answer came with a little blush on his face that made Ever squeal of happiness.

"So that's why you were acting so laid back with the key situation..._we got a key as a reward and we don't know what to do with it..._seriously Laxus!"

"Shut up Ever!"

* * *

They were waiting for her in front of the train,when one of the three asked something that was considered, to them, taboo.

"When are we going to tell her?It's been way too long and she deserves to know."

"It's not simple Midnight, and you know it. She has to remember on her own."

"But Jellal, now we have another problem to handle, I accidentally listened to the lightning dragon's soul and found out that he is pining after her."added Cobra.

"Do you know why?"asked Jellal.

"I have a speculation as to why, but I'm not sure I like it, and I'm certain you both won't."

Just before he could ask more, someone jumped on his back.

"Piggyback ride!"exclaimed the blonde.

"What are you, five?"asked the blue haired man.

"Nobody is ever too old for piggyback rides!"pouted the blonde.

The trio just chuckled and went to get their tickets to leave for their mission.

**So I don't know what the hell is going on, but the chapters sometimes seem to delete words on it's ownnnn...so please if that happens tell me so I can fix it, hope you enjoyed with this chapter, also the story's pace is slow so I can be able to build up everything well, so the romance will be till later on. Please leave reviews and tell me what you think about the story so far.**

**Peace. :)**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

**Umm hii guys, I wanna say something.I wanna thank all who favorited and followed this story, really you guys are amazing for giving my story a chance, and please do leave your opinion on the story and if you have any ideas about it or if I should improve something, I'm all ears.**

**And now, let's continue with this I gotta say that this is a really important chapter, you will discover a lot about Lucy and her past, and if you like to listen to fairy tail's battle music while reading this is exciting because well this is a fight chapter and a sad one as well.**

There they were lying on the floor, sprawled out all in different corners, all thinking how did it get like this, why did they underestimate their opponent, a mistake gravely made by all four mages who are badly bruised and have cuts on all their bodies.

'What the hell is this guy, he outpowered all of us easily, as if he is not a human' a certain celestial mage thought.

One day earlier.

"Well, our client is the mayor, he says that a dark guild by the name Dark Skull is terrorizing the town so we gotta take it out."Lucy said as she walked the streets of clover town with the trio following right behind her.

"So let's go meet the client and rent a room at a hotel and rest a bit, I'm tired."

"Awww, is someone's boyfriend keeping him up all night?"mocked Lucy using her baby voice.

"Well at least this someone has a boyfriend."retorted Mid sticking his tongue out at the little blonde.

"As if you let a guy ten feet close to me without making him run home crying for his mama."

"We do that Lu because you are way too precious, and we know those kind of guys won't be able to handle a gem like yourself."

"Thanks Jellal but you don't even know these guys to deem them as a kind."

"These guys are normal humans, you think they will be able to handle a girl like yourself:wild, stubborn as hell, and a demon under all this sweetness, no Lulu, he'll be dead within the hour."

Lucy gasped at this."Erik, you don't really think there is a demon under all this sweetness?"she half pouted half grinned at him.

"You do know you have a few nicknames at the guild that are related to this subject, scary-Lucy, demon-Lucy and so on, so it's really nothing new."

That was the last Erik was able to say before they reached the mayor's house, a butler let them in and straight to the mayor's office they went.

"Hello we are the fairy tail mages who accepted your request, my name is Lucy and with me are Jellal, Midnight and Cobra."

"Oh thank you for coming so fast, I really appreciate it, please be seated."

The mages did as told and then Lucy spoke"Could you please tell us what happened with this guild and if possible their type of magic and how many are they?"

"Ah yes, well they started attacking the citizens of this town and they went to the extent of murdering a kid last week."

All four mages felt their blood boiling at this fact.

"As for their magic, they were quite different, they all had some hoods to cover up their faces and no one was able to identify any of their magic and their numbers are increasing fastly, last time I checked they are 100 in total."

"Okay thank you mister mayor, we will do our best to bring them down."spoke Lucy clenching her fists as tight as possible.

"That would be amazing, this is their location, it's not exact it's somewhere in this area and as for the reward you will get it once the mission is done"he said handing Lucy a paper, she thanked him and they bid their farewells and went to find an inn.

"Killing a kid, how low can that mage be?"asked Mid as he was walking, hands in pockets and his bangs covering his eyes.

"The lowest there is."said Cobra clenching his teeth.

It was clear to Lucy that this was a sensitive subject, she did not know why though, and that was setting her off.'What happened in their past life?'wondered Lucy after seeing their faces, all grimm and angry, as if they want to rip the guy who killed this kid, she couldn't blame them though, she too wanted to give him a beating, but she will never kill him, that's a line she will never cross.

After a while they reached an inn and reserved two rooms with two beds in each, Lucy and Mid together while Erik and Jellal together. After they took their rest and ate, they went to their destination, they searched for hours until they found the guild;it's doors were tall and made of metal with skulls attached to it, the whole guild had a bad vibe to it, the building was almost falling and the place where it was located reeked with the smell of death, it's like a massacre happened there. The trio started to get really nervous, they should not have taken this mission.

"Cobra how many people are in there?"asked Jellal while hiding behind a bush.

Cobra scrunched up his nose and he was confused so he did it again, trying to smell anything."one!"

"What, only one person?"the blonde was shocked at this revelation, this did not make any sense, why was there only one person there?

"Well this is easy then, let's take him out."said Mid, the rest of the trio agreed but Lucy was still skeptical, after all this whole situation did not bode well with her.

They followed the trail and ended up in front of the door, they pushed it open, the trio readying themselves for a fight while Lucy grabbed her keys and readied her whip.

"So it seems, you are finally here, I have been waiting for you."

A menacing voice boomed from the second floor, they couldn't see anything, it was all dark inside the guild, suddenly the light started switching on and a huge blast rushed towards them at a blinding speed and pushed them all out.

Before they had time to register what was happening to them, they were crushed to the ground by an invisible force, all screaming.

"My, my, you are the wizards they sent after me, what are you trash?"the hooded man laughed at their agony.

they all stood up slowly to regain their posture, and the hooded man appeared in front of them.

"Oh you are still standing, well then I guess I will have a bit fun with you."

The trio clenched their teeth and readied themselves to attack, while Lucy grabbed a key to summon"Open gate of the maiden Virgo."

Nothing, nothing appeared, instead Lucy fell to the ground screaming in pain.

"LUCY!" the trio shouted going after her but were stopped by a magical barrier.

"Oh a little celestial spirit mage,huh! Gotta tell you honey, you magic does not work against me, in fact it will backfire on you."

'So Lucy can't use her magic against this guy, means we gotta finish this guy fast' thought Jellal as he looked at the others and nodded his head, they both understood what he meant and took a battle stance, "don't worry Lucy, we got this."

"What no Jellal I can still fight"Lucy said as she tried to stand up but fell back down, her pain paralyzing her.

"No Lu, you rest, we will handle him, besides it's only three against one."

The hooded man laughed at this"you have quite the confidence, but you seem right, three against one is not fair, so let's even this shall we?"

Two other hooded figures appeared next to him,"now we are three against three."

The trio were shocked, they did not sense anyone approaching, so from where did these two come from.

"So let's begin shall we?"

And the fight started, each picking one to fight, and it lasted for half an hour with the same routine;punch, kick, magic spells, the trio were exhausted, they were all bruised and had cuts several places on their bodies while not even a scratch was visible on their opponents.

"Meteor" Jellal used his spell to try at least land a punch against him, and to try and use the grand chariot spell, but to no avail, his opponent stopped him from casting the spell so many times. He got sent back flying into a tree.

"Jellal, damn it!"by now Lucy could not even stand and thus can't run over to see if he was okay.

"Poison dragon roar!" Cobra let out a roar of poison onto his opponent, only for his opponent to eat his poison and send a roar at him that hurt like hell, even though it was poisonous, he was not able to take it."Oh still alive, must be because you are a dragon slayer."

While with Midnight, he was not able to block his attacker at all,and so ending up with the same fate as the rest of the trio.

"You really do not understand, you cannot defeat me, for I am the one and only..." the man said while lifting his hood to show his face, the other two hooded guys disappeared, "Living demon that was not created by Zeref, Gazul."

The demon had the left side of his skull showing and the right side still had the flesh on it, he had the scariest eyes ever, all block with no iris ,he was tall and well built.

Lucy gasped at this,'WHAT! A DEMON THAT WAS NOT CREATED BY ZEREF!'. Lucy was now really scared and she tried reaching out for her knocked out companions.

"Jellal, Mid, Cobra, you guys! Please wake up"Lucy pleaded to them but they did not move an inch ,at that she was now really scared, she could not do anything against him and even if she could, he could duplicate himself, and let's not forget about the fact that she is in so much pain she cannot move, was this their end? She did not want to go like this, she wanted to live her life to the fullest with her friends, but now she could not even reach her brother like figures because of a stupid barrier and her pain.

"Oh, you seem to still be alive, you should be dead by now, oh well who cares, you will now, meet the fate of your other companions, any last words cupcake?"the demon said.

Lucy cringed at his nickname for her.

"Why did you kill the kid?"

"Which one?"Lucy seethed at his answer"Well whatever, I needed his life energy, I cannot stay alive if I don't drink blood, and to regenerate as well, now that we're done with that, bye bye. Poison blast!"

A huge shot of poison rushed to her 'If Cobra barely managed to block it and he is a poison dragon slayer then I cannot do a thing!'

As the shot hurled towards her, time seemed to slow down, tears brimming at the corner of her eyes 'I still have so much I wanted to do, I wanted to fall in love, have a family, be happy' by now the tears were sliding down her face,she closed her eyes waiting for the impact...It never came.

'I should be dead by now why don't I feel a thing'. She slowly started to open her eyes, only for her tears to flood more.'Je-Jellal! The blue haired man was in front of her, lying on the ground , half of his side is missing.'No,NO,NO NO NO NO NO!'she reached out for him, to feel his pulse, she found nothing, his body was cold and his eyes were shut close, Mid and Cobra have regained consciousness and are now wide eyed at what happened in front of them, they tried calling out for them, but their voice got stuck in their throat, was this actually happening?!

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!"Lucy cried as she cradled Jellal's limp body, flashes started to appear in her head.

_"Mommy, daddy, are we getting a new baby?" asked the three year old Lucy._

_"Yes honey, in fact we are getting three boys, they will be your brothers, alright? you will meet them today, treat them nice sweety okay?"_

_Little Lucy nodded her head excited._

'What, what am I remembering now?'

_"Jellal-nii, Eric-nii, Mac-nii, ready or not here I come."_

'NII! WHAT!'the ground around Lucy started to rumble, she started glowing black with a shine of gold.

_"Mamma, where are they, why are they not here? I miss them." Lucy cried while trying to get answers from her mom._

_"We are searching for them honey, don't worry, we will find them!"Layla tried to reassure her daughter._

A dark circle formed above Lucy and strange markings started to appear on her, the markings started to glow while Lucy screamed. Mid and Cobra were terrified of what was going on but they were not alone, the demon Gazul was also scared, he never felt a power like hers, so powerful, so demanding and a dark one.

_Lucy stood behind the doorway eavesdropping on her parents._

_"What are we gonna tell Lucy Jude? she is scared! Do we tell her the truth? Do we tell her that her brothers got kidnapped by some cult?!"_

_"I don't know what to do Layla, we looked everywhere, it's been a month!" Layla cried on her husband's shoulder as he held her, while little Lucy sank on the floor and cried her eyes out._

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

The circle above Lucy became larger and a beam of a dark light shot at Lucy from it, she was now fully enveloped with the markings.

Midnight and Cobra felt the magical pressure, they could not stand because of it, while Gazul just started backing up 'Wh-who is she!'.

The ground continued to rumble, thunder cracked ,a storm began, and on Lucy's chest, no not on it, inside of it, a key shone, and with that came the following

**"OPEN, GATE OF THE DEMON, LUCILIA!"**

The rocks floating in the air, fell; The storm quieted; the thunder stopped; there was no sound, not a bird's chirping, or the wind whistling, everything paused.

Then, a blinding light covered the whole area and they covered their eyes, after awhile, the light dimmed to reveal instead of Lucy, there was someone else, well something else with their eyes closed.

The first thing they saw was the black feather wings, they were long, and reached her ankles. ANKLES!?

Then they saw her, they saw the red horns that were long and slender stretching out of her head, the long blonde hair that reached her bottom, the red crown that was placed on her head, the crimson lipstick that coloured her plump lips, the attire, which consisted of a one piece,which had the back half uncovered and the front had a triangle under her chest uncovered that reached slightly above her belly button. The outlines of her attire were red while the piece was black. She wore black knee length high heel boots, and she had a lightning mark made with her flesh on her thigh. A large scale like tail was seen behind her, it's scales were the darkest colour of black, not a shine to them, her hands no longer normal, they were shaped like claws, her forearm were red as the color darkened to black upon reaching her nails.

When she opened her eyes, it was as if the whole world stopped, they were pure black, hallow and well empty. She scanned her surroundings and then her gaze stopped at Gazul.

"YOU!" she lunged at him, he tried to dodge but she was way mush faster, so she punched him straight in the jaw sending him back. Midnight and Cobra were paralyside in their place, they could not move, and it was even harder to breathe, what happened to their sweet little Lucy?! After a few minutes they snapped out of it and hurried next to Jellal, he was gone, no pulse.

Lucy, or Lucilia was beating the shit out of Gazul, who was unable to dodge her attacks, she was way more powerful than him, and he knew that, but he was not going down by some fairy, so he fought back.

"POISON BLAST!"

"LUCY!" both Midnight and Cobra yelled, they could not handle another loss.

Suddenly the poison started getting sucked.

"Hmm, that was a nice snack, now do me a favor and die already!"

All of them stared wide eyed at her, 'how could she suck my poison, it's not from this world!'

She extended her hand towards him, "Rumble", a tornado appeared from behind Gazul that flew him to the other side of the open space.

He started gasping, 'who was she!?'

"Duplicate!"

"Hmph!"Lucy glared at the real Gazul.

'How can she know which one is the real one!' He started panicking.

"Blast!" she so casually said it as she extended her hand and shot a blast of fire towards him, that he dodged at the same time.

"POISON STREAM!"

With a wave of her hand, the stream stopped mid air.

'Wh-what is this? ICE!'

'She froze the stream of poison!' Cobra looked at Lucy wide eyed.

"I have had enough of you!" At that water started enveloping Gazul, which immobilized him.

**"Let the thunder roar**

**Let the sea rage...**

Gazul was trying to get free but couldn't, while the others just stared.

**Let the souls scream**

**Let the mind be controlled**

**Let the dead rise**

**Let the senses fade**

**Let the explosives fire**

**Let the shields defend**

**Let the will freeze...**

Nine magical circles appeared above Gazul, at the top the bigger one and it continued to get smaller till the one directly above his head, the biggest one was greyish, the second sea blue,the third was white, the forth was green, the fifth maroon, the sixth bright green, the seventh red/orange, the eighth silver, and the last was light pink.

**BE JUDGED BY THE NINE DEMON GATES**

**TARTAROS!"**

Only his screams were heard when the beam shot from all nine magic circles, the light blinded the whole area and Mid and Cobra covered their eyes while Lucilia was unfazed by it, soon the light dimmed and what was left of Gazul's body was only his bones, and not all of them, there was a pile of ashes beneath the bones.

She came closer and put her hand on Jellal's head and used her necromancer magic to revive him, and after a while he slowly opened his eyes, only to see Lucy-not-so-Lucy-anymore hovering over him.

"What the-!"

"Good you are alive, I'm relieved!"said Lucilia, while Mid and Cobra were just staring, not knowing what to do or to say.

Lucilia tried standing but she then changed back to Lucy and then blacked out, Cobra caught her just before she hit the ground.

The sun was rising now, they spent all night fighting, and then waiting on Jellal to wake up.

"What happened? Who was that girl now?"inquired Jellal.

"I don-, I don't know what to tell you!"replied Mid.

"Let's get back to the inn and then head to the mayor's house."said Cobra.

"Wait what about the hooded man?"

"He's dead Jellal."

"Wait what do you mean dead? Who the f*ck killed him?"

"Lucy!"

"WHAT!"

"Shut up, you are way too loud, I'll tell you on our way back."

Cobra carried Lucy on his back and they all went back, and on the way back, Cobra explained what happened to Jellal, who was left shocked and jaw on the floor.

They went to the inn and put Lucy in bed while Jellal and Cobra went to the mayor's house, told him they handled the situation, that the mission was a success, got the reward and got back to the inn, took their stuff and went to the train station to get back to magnolia, all the while Lucy was still out cold.

"We should get her to the infirmary back at the guild!"said Cobra laying Lu's head on his lap in the train compartment.

"Yeah" both Mid and Jellal agreed.

**Please review.**

**This was a long chapter, phew!**

**Have a good day/night.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Hey guys, back again. So a little heads up, Erza is gonna be a little OOC, but only for a bit and then all will be good. So let's continue on with the story.**

The trio got back to the guild and rushed Lucy to the infirmary. The trio as well told the master what happened but left out the part that Lucy turned into a demon, but unfortunately they were forced to tell that she killed the demon, if they didn't tell him then he would have found out from the client, as the client was well aware of the situation.

"So she killed the demon?"inquired the master.

"Yes but that was necessary for our safety."replied Jellal.

He couldn't tell him the real reason Lucy went all demonic on the demon, he couldn't say that he died in front of them, because then he would have to tell about Lucy being able to somehow revive him.

"Hmmm, you do know that Fairy Tail does not kill, right?"

The trio nodded.

"And you do know that she will be punished for it?"

The trio took sharp breathes but nevertheless, nodded.

"Well then, I will have a meeting with the S-class mages about this."

It was a new rule to have meetings with the S-class mages in things like this, as they all moved forward for the benefit of the guild.

The trio then left the master's office, all really feeling bad for what's about to happen to Lucy, and feeling extremely guilty, at the end, they reached a decision, if Lucy was to ever be kicked out of Fairy Tail, they would leave to be with her.

_With the master._

"You called for us jiji?"asked Laxus.

"Yes I have something important to discuss with you."

The master then told them what happened, exactly as the trio said it, not to leave anything out, the master felt the trio hiding something from him, but he did not pressure them any further.

"So what shall we do?"asked Mirajane.

"We have to think of a suitable punishment for her."

"But jiji, we cannot be too judgemental, we all made mistakes before."

"True to that old man, Lucy would not hurt anyone on purpose, I say we just let this slide, she did save three guild members."

"So will this be your vote Gildarts."

The man nodded.

"With all due respect master, Gildarts, but killing is not acceptable in Fairy Tail, in fact we go out of our ways to avoid killing someone, so why shall we let it slide, if we did this time then she may do it again."

"So what do you have in mind Erza, you are her team captain, you should make the decision."

"Well…"

XXX

Lucy tried to open her eyes, after several tries, she succeeded and when she opened her eyes, she saw that she was in the guild's infirmary.

Her eyes scanned her surroundings and found the people she wanted to see the least, all on chairs sleeping. The trio were exhausted and were waiting for her to wake up, but as time went on, sleep overtook them.

She wanted them out of the room, she wanted to yell at them to wake up and leave, but after seeing them she just couldn't, the guys were her brothers, real ones, and they kept it a secret, and Lucy was sure they knew who she was, why else they would become protective over her the minute they walked in the guild, and all the times they spent taking care of her when she was sick, she was not dumb, she figured it out, and with nothing to do about it, she broke down. Her cries woke the trio up immediately and they rushed to her side.

"Are you okay? Are you hurt? Should we get Wendy?"asked Mid.

She just kept sobbing while they held onto her, all worried something happened to her, or that she was in pain.

"Why…"

They all looked at her confused.

"Why didn't you tell me who you were?"she choked a sob in between "Jellal-nii, Mac-nii, Eric-nii?"

They were all shocked, she only called them like that when she was a little girl, while playing hide and seek, and other games, in general before they got kidnapped.

She looked at them through her blurry teary eyes.

"Are you alright, we don't know what you're talking about Lu."

"STOP!"

They were shut.

"Stop trying to deny it, I remember , and I know you do too, so stop! This is awful, you guys knew all this time and never once said something, I had a right to know, I had a right to know you guys are my adoptive brothers, I HAVE A RIGHT!"

She started breathing rapidly and she clutched her hand over her heart.

"I don't want to see you now, please leave."she said as low as a whisper.

"Lu please wai-"

"JELLAL!" she took a deep breath "please leave! All of you."  
the trio looked at each other before grabbing their stuff and leaving the room while Lucy continued crying, she never felt so broken in her life. And for matters to get worse, the master walked in to tell her the punishment decided.

"Hello child, how are you?"

"Please do not sugar coat it master, and don't ask how I am doing, we both know why you are here."

"Truth to what you said, but I truly want to check on you."

"Sorry master, just not in a great mood."

"That's understandable, by the look of the trio, it seemed you had a fight."

The blonde sighed and nodded her head.

"I am sorry to bring you such bad news child."

The blonde looked up at him, and her tears flew down as he continued speaking, but soon those sad tears were replaced by angry tears.

The guild was normal, all good, except for the trio and for some reason, the lightning dragon mage, and the take-over mage.

The door of the infirmary flew open and angry footsteps were heard as Lucy descended the stairs and went to team Natsu's table. The scarlet mage felt her presence behind her back so she stopped eating her cake and stood up to face her.

Lucy glared daggers at the scarlet while Erza looked bored. The rest of the guild stood silent and watched the exchange between the two girls, while Mira and Laxus got ready to intervene, the trio stood to protect their little sister.

"Why?"glared Lucy at her.

"Because you broke a rule, and you had to be punished, and this was a good punishment, maybe now you will learn to not break the rules."

Lucy scoffed, the whole guild felt the tension between the two girls, Natsu and Gray and Wendy slowly stood up to leave the table incase they had to intervene, because seeing the glares between the two set them on edge, this was not a normal brawl.

"You mean to tell me that when your life is in danger, you think about f*cking rules?"

"I don't know, my life was never in danger to know how that feels."

"What do you mean by that Scarlet?"

"Take it how you want it Heartfilia."Erza smirked thinking she won this.

"So you think it's fair to kick me out of team Natsu, and also ban me from going on missions until further notice?"

Natsu, Gray and Wendy stood in front of Erza "what is she talking about Erza?"

"Well you see Gray, Lucy here is kicked off team Natsu."

The whole guild gasped at this, this can't be, they must be imagining things.

"WHY?" Natsu growled at the requip mage, who smirked in return and turned to Lucy. The master, upon seeing what was about to happen, hurried to stop it but was too late.

"Because the light of Fairy Tail killed someone. Didn't you Lucy?"

The whole guild's eyes went wide, Natsu and the others slowly turned to Lucy to see if this was true, all silently begging it wasn't, but by the way Lucy was trembling and had her bangs covering her eyes, they got the answer they dreaded and sank back on their chairs.

Lucy looked at them with disbelief in her eyes, how could they not even give her a chance to explain herself. She bit back her sobs, and shook away the tears that tried to escape.

"You don't know…" they all looked at her "what happened there, you have no right to judge me by doing what I did, if you forgot you killed Azuma."

"I didn't! he merged with the ground! And back then, I did what I have to do to save my guild!"

"AND I DID WHAT I HAD TO DO TO SAVE MY BROTHERS!"

"And why did they need saving? You wanna tell me that three from the strongest people couldn't beat this guy and got beaten up but you yourself could!? Don't fool me Heartfilia."

The slayers all growled at the scarlet mage, what was she doing?

"So in other words, I am weak. Right Erza?" Lucy asked while her bangs covered her face.

The scarlet mage sighed before nodding "Exactly Lucy."

The blonde started to chuckle, but then it turned into a maniacal laugh "So this is the guild that is all about f*cking forgiveness, is this the guild that considered it's members family, I doubt it, you all are a bunch of lying cowards, and only because I cannot leave this guild because of my punishment that I am staying, after that I am gone. I don't want to be seen with people as such, a rune knight kills to protect the citizens , but if I do that to protect my brothers, it's considered a murder! And it's no f*cking saint I killed either, it was a demon!"

That was the last thing Lucy said before storming out of there running towards her appartement.

"How…" Jellal said shakely "How could you?"

"This is her punishment, do not interfere Jellal."

"Her punishment! HER PUNISHMENT! SHE SAVED THE THREE OF US, I-"

"JELLAL DON'T!"

Cobra stopped him in time.

"I don't care! She shouldn't take the blame for us. This is our fault! I wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for her!"

The man couldn't take it anymore and so he turned towards his used to be beloved "Do not ever again talk to Lucy, or say that she is weak , because I will make sure you wish for the heavens you were never born. You got that Erza!?" the scarlet shuddered at the poison lacing his words, never in her life she heard him talk to her like that, and by the menacing aura the trio are giving off, they mean it, this was not an empty threat.

"B-b-but Jellal…sh-she-"

She was shut by the glare the trio sent her way, first time in her life, Erza was scared, not only her, the whole guild was, this is the first time the trio acted this way. When the trio left, they all let out the breath they didn't know they were holding.

'What have I done?'thought Erza as she watched the guild doors while still taking shaky breaths. The guild stayed silent the whole while.

"Blondie, open up."

"Go away, I don't want to see you."

He sighed, leaning his forehead on her door "Lucy please, let me in." he said in a soft voice the blonde didn't know he had, and so she opened her door, only to break down in his arms. He held her close and walked in closing the door behind him, she kept on crying in his arms for about half an hour, until her sobs started to quiet and then reached only to sniffles.

"How are you able to talk to me? Why don't you hate me like all of them do? My own team didn't give me a chance to explain, so why? Why are you here? Why are not shiding away or giving me that look of disgust?"

She asked him as she looked him in the eye, her tears coming back more and more after every question. He looked at her straight in the eye and said "Because I can never hate someone like you Lucy, I can never hate someone who sacrificed someone so dear for the life others,

For our lives ,and even if I didn't know about that, I can never hate and judge someone who accepted me and my team with open arms, after what we did, someone who smiled at me the day after I turned them to stone and someone…" he pressed his forehead on hers "someone whose smile can light up the darkest places, bring people out of dark paths, lift someone's mood the second he sees it, the smile I looked forward everyday to see it."

She looked at him with wide eyes, and then fell to his embrace while she continued sobbing "thank you." She held him closer "thank you Sparky." He just smirked and hugged her just as tight, this was heaven to him, but he did not like the situation that led to this.

_"Are you insane Erza, this is too far, this is not a punishment, this is torture!"_

_"And why do you care Laxus?! She made her mistake and she's gonna make up for it, just like you did."_

'She does not deserve this, someone like her only deserves the whole world, which I plan to give her'.

The blonde had long ago fell asleep, so he took her to her bed and tucked her in, and leaned down kissing her forehead "Goodnight Blondie." And then he left.

XXX

The next morning, Lucy woke up and got out of bed to get ready to get to the guild.

'The guild! I don't want to go there. I'll just-'

Her thoughts were interrupted when her went off, so she answered it.

"Hey Lu."

He was tired, he looked like he hadn't slept the whole night. Behind him, two figures stood next to his side, all with bags under their eyes and one with black hair had red eyes. Lucy's heart broke at the sight in front of her, but she did not know what to do, so she just started crying.

"I know, we messed up."

Lucy only nodded at this.

"But we wanted to ask you if you can give us a chance to explain ourselves?"

Lucy thought about it and nodded her head, if she was sad the guild did not give her a chance to explain herself, well she was not gonna be like them, she will give the trio a chance to explain themselves.

She heard a knock on her door and went to answer it, there stood the trio with their head hung low, she invited them in and waited for one of them to at least speak. When no one did she decided to start the conversation.

"Why?"

"Because we didn't want you too."

Jellal's response shook her, she started thinking that it was because of her, I mean who would want her as a sister, she is weak.

"I mean would you accept us back after everything we did?"

She just stared at them.

"Who would want to have brothers as criminals?"

'So they were ashamed to tell me because they used to be criminals?'

"When we got adopted, that was the happiest day of our lives Lu, you cannot imagine how happy we felt that day."

"We got even more excited when we learned we will have a baby sister."

She looked at Cobra.

"And then we met you."

Her eyes drifted to Midnight.

"You were such a bundle of joy that seeing you sad broke our hearts, so if you knew that your brothers turned to criminals, even hurt you, I USED YOU IN A F*UCKING RITUAL TO GET POWER!"

By now the trio were in tears, and so was Lucy.

"I hurt you, I don't deserve to be your brother, I even used your doll against you, I used a friend to betray you and I didn't have a care in the world on what might this effect you, so tell me, why would I tell you who I really am?"

Midnight collapsed on the floor, and Lucy rushed to him, and she hugged him.

"Because I needed you guys, it's true that I didn't remember you back then, but when I saw all of you, I felt a connection with you, as if I've seen you before, all I wanted to do back then was to run and hug you, and I didn't even know why."

They were all now on the floor, hugging each other tightly and then Cobra talked.

"Lucy, we wanted you to have the choice of wanting to hang out with us or not, of actually wanting to be a family or not, we don't deserve you and we know that, which is why we never said a word, but stayed close in case you were in danger, and that of course happened after we all woke the f*ck up."

The blonde giggled at that, "of course, I got used to you now anyways, I can't let you go, who would raid my room when I get a little late to show up at the guild anyway?"

The trio chuckled at that.

"so we're good?"

"We're good."

"Oh thank god, I thought we have to use plan B." Midnight sighed in relief.

"What was plan B?"

"Kidnap you and take you far away from here and tie you up on a chair so you listen to us."

She stared blankly at them, they all looked serious.

"Heh heh haha well thank god that it worked out." The blonde said nervously.

The trio just nodded.

"So Lulu, you got any questions?"

"I got a lot actually?"

"Shoot."

"How old were you guys when we first met?"

"I was seven, Erik was six and Macbeth was six as well."(I made up their ages!)

"And I was?"

"Three."

The blonde nodded.

"when were you guys taken?"

This time Erik answered the question "When Mac and me were nine and Jellal was ten, after three years."

"Do you guys know why I couldn't remember what happened back then?"

"Not really."

The blonde sighed at his answer, "Don't worry Lu, we will find out what happened, we promise."

She smiled at them, she was happy she listened to them, but something was still bothering her.

"What did you tell the master?"

"We did not tell him anything about the fact that Jellal died and that you turned into a demon."

"But you told him that I killed someone."

"Well yes, because if we hadn't, he would have heard it from the client, who called by the way after we got out and talked to the master about how he heard that Fairy tail never kills and that he was surprised."

"Which drove the master more about finding a punishment for me."

"Precisely."

After a while of silence, Erik spoke up "Now, Lulu, would you care to tell us why does your apartment smell like the lightning freak?"

Lucy's face reddened and her heartrate quickened, "I don't know what you're talking about… now If you excuse me, I'll go make some dinner."

She scrambled out of the living room.

"Nu-uh, Lu get your ass back here, what happened last night?"

"Is our little sister growing up?"

"Shut up Mid! Lucy is not allowed to date until she is thirty."

"EXCUSE ME!? THIRTY!"

And so the night went on with all of them teasing Lucy or each other, they talked the whole day and did not realise it became dark out and she was glad she was able to relax a bit after what happened yesterday. The trio ended up having a sleepover at her house and she was more than fine with it.

"Hey Lu?"

"Hmm…"

"How did you revive me?"

She took a deep breath "I don't know, but I will ask Grampa Crux about it tomorrow."

"Are you going to the guild tomorrow?"

"No, I wanna go somewhere for a while now, there is something I need to check."

"Okay."

They then all fell asleep on the floor after way too many rounds of poker that led Lucy to quite a jackpot.


	10. Chapter 10

**Hello again everyone! I hope you are having a good day/night. Please leave your reviews about the story, I would appreciate it ****.**

Lucy woke up the next day, quite late in the morning, glancing around the room there was no sign of the trio. She spotted a note with three keys on top of it.

_Dear Lucy_

_We forgot to give you the reward for the mission, the money is in a pouch on your desk, we will stop by later, have fun with your day._

_Sincerely, your brothers._

Lucy smiled at the letter and looked at her desk, sure enough there was a pouch sitting at it.

'I love that I can call them brothers freely now, and I'm glad we worked things out, but my god what happened with Laxus!? He never treated anyone that way and I FELL ASLEEP IN HIS ARMS!'

Lucy was now red with embarrassment, and put her hands on her face shaking it and squeaking in her palms. She removed her hands and took a deep breath

'Okay let's see the keys we got from the reward'

Lucy inspected the keys, found two of them silver, but the third was silver close to transparent, which was weird, and when Lucy tried to feel any magical energy from it, she found none, the key did not have a spirit inside of it and that was even weirder.

She put it down and focused on the other two keys, she immediately knew who they were and took a stance and started chanting

"I am linked to the path to the world of celestial spirits!

Now! O Spirit, answer my call and pass through the Gate!

Gate of the Fox! Gate of the Phoenix! Vulpecula! Ankaa!"

There was the sound of a bell and silver light shone in the room and there stood in front of her, a little girl and a giant flaming bird.

They both bowed down to her and said simultaneously

"Welcome our new master."

She just waved at them and smiled happily "Hello my name is Lucy Heartfilia, glad to be your holder, and please do not call me master, I am your friend, now will you please tell me if you like to have a contract with me and if yes, what are your powers and what days are you unavailable?"

"You are princess Lucy?"

The blonde nodded at the little girl, the little girl , 6 years old tops,beamed at her and waved her tail ferociously behind her, the little girl, had red hair tied up in a bun with two orange cat ears with a large red bow in her hair, she had big brown eyes, she was slim and wore a knee length dress that was red up to her waist, and then it started fading into white flowing freely to her knees.

"I use illusion magic and I am not free after 10 pm, also can I call you princess like my cousin?"

"Sure, but who is your cousin?"

Another light appeared but this time it was golden and she instantly knew the answer

"Well it is only me, the one and only knight in shining armor, Leo the lion."

"Yeah I kinda figured."

"Cousin, she is just as beautiful as you said." The little girl's eyes were practically glowing.

Lucy blushed at her and patted her head "You are beautiful too"

The little spirit just blushed and hid behind her cousin "and she is just as nice too"

The lion smiled at his cousin and nodded slowly "well princess we will be taking our leave, also Vulpecula can also transform into a fox, call me if you need me, for I will respond within the sec-"

…

…

…

"Did you just force close his gate princess?"

"unfortunately, there is only much I can handle from your cousin."

The little girl nodded at that and waved goodbye and disappeared with a puff of silver smoke.

Lucy turned to her other spirit and before she could say anything she beat her to it

"I cannot stand that lion, such a perverted man! Well anyway my name is Ankaa, I am free whenever you need me, and I use combustion phoenix slayer magic, and I would love to make a contact with you, but next time could you please not summon me in such a tight space?"

"Ah yes, okay then I would love to be your friend, but when you say combustion you mean fire right?"

"Yes, if that is all I shall take my leave, see you next time princess."

The blonde nodded at her spirit before she dissapeared, and then she looked at the last key, she moved her hand over Grampa Crux key and he appeared beside her

"What is it you like to know my child?"

"Jiji, this key has no magical power in it, no sign on it, it appears as if this key holds no spirit."

The spirit looked at the key before he widened his eyes and then turned back to his friend

"That my child is an empty key."

"An empty key?"

"Yes, it is not known if it used to have a spirit in it and the spirit escaped, but at the moment that key is empty, and you can use it to lock some monster in it and turn him to a spirit."

"That seems a bit cruel don't you think?"

"It depends on the monster you lock."

Lucy looked at the key and nodded slowly, then she turned back to her spirit "Jiji, I have a question concerning my-" she hesitated for a bit "my demon spirit"

The spirit looked at her and nodded his head, immediately understanding her "It was a key given to you by someone of who we are forbidden to speak his name, it was a normal key at first, you used to hold it and everytime you chanted, nothing used to come out. One night, you were not able to sleep, so you got out of bed and grabbed the key and went outside, and you tried summoning it again, and this time the key started to glow, your mom was woken up because of the glow, and she looked outside her window and what she saw her scared her…"

Lucy was now scared to find out the rest, and her spirit waited for her, with a curt nod he continued "The demon was standing in front of you, but she was badly injured, and so reached out her hand to you calling you to help, and you took it, and she used that opportunity to merge herself with you, her spirit faded away, but she gave you her powers and so the key merged with your body, next to your heart, after that you passed out and your mom ran to catch you."

"But why couldn't I remember it or feel the key inside of me?"

He looked at her but shook his head "I'm sorry my child but I cannot say more about this matter, you need to find out for yourself"

She nodded at him " But jiji, one last question…"

"You already know the answer to that. And don't worry, his life is not attached to you, but you can't revive him anymore."

"So it is true? That this demon holds the power of the nine demon gates?"

Her spirit nodded at her before saying goodbye and returning back to the spirit world.

She took a deep breath and sighed, too much information in the damn morning, well afternoon now after all the talk they did, but that explained why she was able to revive Jellal. Her gowing on snapped her from her thoughts, she answered it and was shocked to see the calling end.

"Hey Lulu, me and the team are having a dinner tonight you wanna come?"

"Ever… are you sure?"

"of course I am." The fairy mage smiled wholeheartedly at her and she could only smile back.

"Okay, I would love too."

"Good, be ready at 8, we will come pick you up."

The blonde sighed and sat back 'why do they still want to hang out with me? Why was Laxus so nice to me two days ago? And why did Erza do that? Way too many questions that I don't have the answers for, but more importantly, why do I have memories of a black haired man giving me Lucilia's key?'

The day passed on and the trio came back later and told her of their activities and what they did at the guild, and Jellal never once mentioned Erza which set the blonde on edge since when they usually sat like this, he used to talk about her 'I hope I did not damage their relationship…'.

She told them about the dinner plans she had tonight and they were happy that she was not being left alone, and that some people from the guild still talk to her. Truthfully, the guild did not even wonder ehy she didn't come two days in a row, they were not even worried that something might have happened to her, the only ones who were , were the master ,Mira, panther Lily, Gajeel, the raijinshuu and Laxus, and Levy, Gildarts figured why she won't be showing up to the guild.

The trio agreed to help her get ready, and each one set out an outfit for her,

"This time Fernandes, I'm gonna win."

"In your dreams poison breath, this time I am."

"Ha, both of you always fight, but in the end I always win."

They both turned towards Midnight, and glared, and in chorus said "We'll see about that."

"Okay guys are you ready?"

"YES!"

"Okay the winner is… Midnight!"

She jumped from behing the bathroom door showing her outfit, she wore a tight red tank top,embroidered with golden flecks running across the chest to her shoulders, a tight high waisted leather pants with high black boots, her golden hair is let loose going past her waist, with red lips and a thin eyeliner, she looked like a goddess standing there, Jellal and Cobra were left mouth open and eyes bulging out of their place while Midnight just admired his work.

"Well you look like a goddess beautiful Lu."

"Thanks Jellal-nii!" she said blushing and turning her head from him.

'KAWAIIIIII' the trio couldn't handle their sister's cuteness and hotness at the same time, but then the blunette snapped out of it

"Wait a minute, these clothes are way too edgy, and three men are gonna be with her, I do not approve of and one of them is an S-class playboy while the other is an S-class flirt, Lu stay next to Freed, he is the only gentleman from that mix."

"Jeeze, thank you for the trust blue head!" a deep voice echoed behind them.

The trio turned to look for the owner of the voice, and there the guests of Lucy stood "how did you get in here?"

"The door was open so we walked in, so is Lulu done yet?"

The blonde stepped from behind the trio to welcome her guests "Yeah I am ready, just need to get my purse, please make yourself comfortable."

She turned and walked to her room leaving behind her a blushing lightning slayer, an eyes bulging seith mage, a red faced rune mage, and a smirking fairy mage.

"Boss"whispered Bickslow to the lightning dragon slayer, who hummed in response "I now understand why they were worried." The slayer only gulped in response and nodded his head.

"HEY! I can hear you, don't even think about it!"

"Stupid dragon slayer hearing" the seith mage said under his breath "Don't worry about it snake, she's in good hands" he yelled with his tongue rolling down, the poison dragon slayer only eyed him and nodded his head. When she got her purse,bid farewell to her brothers and left her house with her companions and went on the road to find a restaurant to eat at. On the way there, the lightning dragon slayer had his eyes only focused on the sway of the blonde's hips who was walking in front of him talking with Ever, that was until he got smacked on the head by Freed who caught him staring "the hell Freed?"he hissed at the rune mage "According to what we heard earlier, they trust me the most, so I will be the one who keeps an eye on her from people who are looking at her inappropriately."

"tch, I was not-"

"I ain't blind Laxus-sama."

"Fine!" he growled.

The blonde turned to them and eyed them "Are you guys okay?"

Both men nodded their heads and she just smiled brightly, "okay that's good" and resumed walking, the blush on the men's faces was deep and they were thankfull she turned at the right time.

'God damn it Blondie, the way her hips are swaying are making me imagine some shit right now.. god damn it Laxus, get a hold of yourself! control yourself!'

They reached a restaurant and got a booth at the corner so no one can bother them, they all sat down, Ever and Lucy next to each other, Bickslow and Freed next to each other and Laxus on his own.

"Hello, my name is Bobo, I will be your waiter, what would you like to order?"

"Well I would like a steak and wine"

The waiter wrote down Laxus's order, and turned to Freed "lamb salad with fregola please."

"I would like the same as Freed."

The fairy mage turned to Lucy, "what would you like Lucy?"

"I would like salad chef."

"I would have the same."

The waiter eyed Lucy from head to toe, but before Laxus could growl at him, he was next to Lucy and bowing "Miss Lucy is that you?"

The blonde looked confused for a minute then it clicked "Bobo! How have you been? How are you looking human? And why are working here?"

"We have been doing well, thank you for asking, we can conceal our true forms,and I just wanted to see how the world looked."he smiled at Lucy then turned at the rest "I will go bring your food for you."

After he left, they all turned to face Lucy "How do you know the waiter Lulu?"

The blonde looked nerveous as she did not know how to tell them "Well we met him at Galuna Island." She said scratching the back of her head.

"Galuna Island? You mean the cursed island, where all it's residents are demons?"

She nodded her head at Freed and let out a sigh "Ahh, you met him when you and flame brain stole an S-class request."

She gulped and the raijinshuu looked at her

"Wait wait wait, the pure princess, the light of fairy tail, the one who stands against all that is wrong, stole an S-class mission and went on it without anyone's approval? Cosplayer, you ain't an innocent girl like I thought you were."

"Be quiet, okay? And it wasn't me who stole the request it was Natsu and before I knew it he was dragging me out of my appartment."she puffed out her cheeks, and all be damned, Laxus wanted to keep pissing her off just to see her like this, so cute!

"Stop teasing Lulu Bicks, now Lucy we want to talk to you about something…" Evergreen said her eyes shifting to Lucy then to the rest.

Lucy inhaled deeply "Did you bring me here to interrogate me?"

"No Blondie, we are not interrogating you, we don't blame you, we just want you to know that we stand by your side, no matter if you tell us what really happened or not, we just want to tell you that you can rely on us."

The blonde looked them in the eye, waiting for any signs to show that they are lying, that they weren't sincre, and when she found none, she decided to trust them and tell them later on what happened.

"After dinner, at my house." They all nodded, but Bickslow said "You don't have to if you don't want to, you are not forced to tell us anything."

"I want to, believe or not, you are the first people who gave me a chance to explain what happened, and I am not throwing that away."

Their foods arrived, and they ate in silence, and when they were done, Laxus called for the cheque only to find out it was already paid by Bobo, to thank them properly for saving them, after waving goodbye, they made their way to Lucy's house, after they all went in, she asked Freed tp put up some runes so no one listens to what was being said.

"So…" she took a deep breath and began telling them what happened, from the job to the mayor and the reward, to the demon they faced off and knowing the shocking fact that he was not a demon created by Zeref, to the fact the trio couldn't even land a spell on him, and that she couldn't use her powers next to the demon so she wasn't able to fight…

"He shot a poison blast at Cobra and he was down, the poison dragon slayer was down because of a shot of poison, and then he turned to me"

Her eyes started to water

"And he shot me with a poison blast, I couldn't move so I thought this was my end"

She chocked back a sob while the others waited for her to continue, Ever moved close to her and started rubbing circles on her back, after a deep breath she continued "I waited for the impact but it never came, I opened my eyes and saw Jellal on the ground, wi-with..hi-his right side gone.." she cried after that and gasps were heard across the room 'how the hell is he still alive then?'

"He died."

They all looked at her like she grew a second head, "And before I knew it I transformed into a demon, it turns out someone gave me her key a long time ago and it merged with my body but for whatever reason I couldn't remember it, so I fought him and killed him, and I also remembered some things about my past that were concealed from me."

"Such as…?"asked Ever with worry in her eyes.

"That these three stupid idiots are my adoptive brothers" her guests were left with wide eyes "But what happened to Jellal?"asked the rune mage.

"Somehow I revived him with my demonic powers."

"The day at the guild Blondie, you fought with your brothers because you confronted them?"asked Laxus.

She nodded "And then came the stupid scarlet mage and downed her punishment on you for saving you brothers, she really crossed a line there with what she said."

They all nodded but Lucy added "And my team and the whole guild did not give me a chance to explain, I am really glad you guys did."she said while wiping her tears, and she continued to tell them what happened with her brothers and how they ended the night with poker.

"Oh so you play poker huh Blondie?"

"Oh please Sparky, I am a pro poker player."

And so they spent the night playing poker, laughing at silly jokes Bickslow said, telling tales about their missions and such. Soon the clock ticked at 4 o'clock in the morning and each went to their respective homes after bidding the blonde farewell.

XXX

It has been a month since the incident, and Lucy never showed her face at the guild, now guild members started getting worried, the trio seemed well and the raijinshuu and their leader were really happy discussing some plans about some party, the trio soon joined them, the barmaid was really curious to know what they were talking about, and specially since they were speaking of a party, but before she could question them, the guildhall's doors opened and in walked the famous celestial mage, the guild grew quiet,she glanced around the guild, she saw her team's table and smiled in their direction, her team was relieved to see her coming their way until she walked past them and up to the second floor where she joined the raijinshuu and her brothers, her team's faces was a mix of sadness and hurt, thoughts like 'why hasn't she said hello?' or 'will she ever talk to us again?'. A certain blunette dragon slayer was on the verge of tears, there goes her sister figure that she failed to protect, and what's more, the beast inside of her raged when she hadn't stepped up to defend her sister figure, and the same thing happened with Natsu, both their dragon's identified Lucy as kin, as for Gray, he was just as hurt, hurt and angry at himself for not giving her a chance.

Erza, was something else, she stopped eating her strawberry cake, stopped going on missions, ever since she did what she did, Jellal never glanced her side, whispers about how she was unfair was heard thoughout the guild, and that she was just jealous and such, so her team decided to get her out of this state and took her out of the guild, to try and cheer up her mood, they were furious at her sure, but they stayed by her side, and they were determined to fix the mistake they did with Lucy, after all team Natsu was not complete without her.

On the second floor, Lucy was being teased at by what happened last night. Last night they all went out at a bar, the trio , the Thunder God Tribe and Lucy…

"I can't believe what you said to that guy cosplayer"the seith mage laughed holding his stomach, barely sitting on his chair.

"Blondie, you really surprised me there as well, and the look on his face when she said it… phew, it was priceless" grinned the hulk of a man.

The blonde hid her face from embarrassment "STOP TEASING ME!"

"Yes I'm sorry Lu" she looked up at her blue haired brother with relief in her eyes, smiling "You guys shouldn't tease a mother, she has a lot on her plate…" her smile turned into a pout "NOT YOU TOO!" the whole table shook with laughter while Lucy pounded her head on the table.

"Why did you say you were a mother, honey? You know these guys would have handled him."inquired the fairy mage while grinning behind her fan.

"Well you guys weren't doing anything, and he was practically all over me, so I said that I am a mother"

"When did my beautiful princess become a mother? And not to one kid, but to five?" he said fixing his glasses trying to not break down from laughter, she turned to her used to be faithful spirit and glared at him, before he could apologize, he was sent back to the spirit world, all turned to see her glaring at where the lion spirit was standing "Stupid lion." And again the whole table shook with laughter, the whole guild looked at them envious wanting to know what happened.

XXX

It was night, all was prepared for the party, last touches here and there in the restaurant 8island, balloons decorated the place, a karaoke stand is set in the middle, Yajima was sad to hear about what happened to the celestial mage, so he agreed to help them and lend them the restaurant for the birthday party.

"Is everything set Ever?"

"Yes Laxus, the raijinshuu are here, and the trio went to get the birthday girl, turning twenty tonight, a big deal."

The man nodded and opened his mouth to speak but the scent of strawberries and vanilla raided his nose,announcing that she was here, "Alright everybody hide, she's here." They all hid and turned off the lights.

"Why do I have to close my eyes, Jellal? I could trip."

"Stop talking and just follow me" they stood at the entryway "okay open your eyes."

The blonde did as he said "Um Jellal why is it dark her-"

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" the lights turned on to show the raijinshuu and Laxus, and the trio standing around her with wide smiles spread across their faces.

_Lucy's pov_

I stood there shook, until I couldn't stand anymore and fell to the floor, they all rushed to my side "Lu are you alright?" "Damn it, maybe Cosplayer doesn't like surprises" they all shut up the second I pulled them into a hug, tears flowing down my face "thank you, thank you so much" I continued to sob, I was grateful to have such people by my side, people that stood beside me all this month, kept me entertained, took my mind away from the pain, never in my life have I ever loved people like I love them, and I will fight with everything I got to keep these people by my side. We spent the night chatting and dancing, they made me wear a birthday hat that was pink and blue, prepared a large cake of chocolate and strawberries, my favourite,this night was the best of my life, and then came the presents, and at that Bickslow complained about the fact I cry way too much, well what can I do when I feel so loved that I could explode.

Evergreen's gift was a pair of magical sandals that can change colour to what I would like, I thanked her so much for this gift and gave her a bone crushing hug, next was Bickslow who got me a ticket to Akane resort all free of charges, I jumped at him and landed crushing him in my hug, as for Freed, he got me a book of celestial spirit magic that was original, the one and only in the world, his fate was the same as Bicks when I received his gift, next was Laxus who got me a key-ring where I can put my keys in it and the ring is magically enchanted to return to it's master's side so that way no one can take my keys again and I can stay safe in the battle, I also gave him a bone crushing hug, next were the trio who all assembled in front of me, "We know that you can't go on missions, so we went in your stead on every mission that had a key as reward, so our gift to you is two keys, the first is of leo minor and the second to Equeeleus. We know how much you like your spirits, so we brought you a new addition to your family."

They smiled at me, and I couldn't help the waterworks again, I sobbed and looked all around me and then back at them "Our."

They all looked at me confused and I couldn't help but smile "Our family."

The warmth was evident in their eyes and they all scooped me in a hug, "I love you guys." "we love you too." I touched my keys and they all gave off their warmth, wishing me a happy birthday,and some even came out on their own, and then Loke appeared in front of me, "My dear princess, this is a gift from the celestial spirit king and all the spirits you contracted and one you didn't" he winked at me, I beamed at him and took the present and opened the box, I fell to my knees the second time this day, they were all next to me in a second, there was a few letters in the box but on top of them was a necklace made of pure gold, and hanging from it was a heart made of a red diamond framed by gold, I touched it and was startled to see the picture of my mother in the heart, I looked at my lion and smiled a teary smile, "she would be proud of you." He hugged me and wished me a happy birthday, before poofing back to the spirit world. I wore the necklace and the party continued, singing our hearts out on the karaoke stand, dancing ,playing games of boards and of course poker, which this time Laxus won, but because I was the birthday girl he gave me the money, which I refused to take but he wouldn't have it, and eventually told me to take the money or he would tell the whole guild I am a mother of five. Of course I took the money after that threat, needless to say, this was the best night.

_Normal pov_

Four people and a flying cat stood at the windows of 8island, all have their heads hang low in shame, and a small girl had small tears escaping her eyes, she wished the blonde a happy birthday in a hushed voice before turning away and running back to her room crying 'How could I forget Lucy-san's birthday? How could I forget my big sister's birthday?' she sobbed while her cat tried to calm her but didn't know how because she wasn't with them 'Lucy-nee hates me, that's for sure! I will make amends, I don't care how but I will.' She got up and started making a gift for Lucy.


	11. Chapter 11

**Hey hey guys, imma start off with saying thank you for the reviews, I really appreciate it all , also I wanna add, that I edited all the last chapters again because words were disappearing from the them, so now, hopefuly, all is good, now moving on with the story.**

**I do not own Fairy Tail.**

The next day, at the guild, the thunder legion and Laxus sat at their table chatting and discussing about what happened at the party, and soon after the trio joined them. For the last month, the trio got closer to the raijinshuu and their leader and started to actually like them, and vice-versa.

While they were chatting, a little bluenette came up to them with a perfectly wrapped gift, trembling slightly and trying to speak up but failing, no one at the table seemed to notice her, so she decided to turn back and try at another time.

"Wendy?"

She stopped dead in her track, and turned to face the other bluenette, "Is something wrong?" he asked her.

"Ano, umm… no I just wanted toooo… umm to give this to Lucy-san, but she is not here." She replied nervously "So I thought to ask you if you could give it to her?"her eyes were looking everywhere but into his, it appears as the whole guild quieted and was looking at the exchange, the whole silence was making her doubt her decision, and she really felt like bolting out of here, but before she could think of anything else, the bluenette smiled at her and shrugged "Why not give it to her yourself, she'll be here anytime now."

Just then the guild doors opened and in walked the celestial spirit mage, she looked at their table and walked to it but paused briefly after she saw Wendy.

The girl turned to face Lucy "Um, uhhh.. Happy birthday Lucy-san" she hurriedly squeaked while bowing and then handed her the gift. The blonde just stood there shocked before her face melted into a smile and she pats the sky maiden's head.

"Thank you Wen, what is it?" the blonde asks as she unwraps the present when she sat at their table.

"It's a scarf, I made it last night.."

Lucy looks at the scarf, it was black on the sides and the middle was pink, it was something really beautiful and the blonde was grateful for the gift, "Thanks Wen, you really didn't have to, it is really beautiful."

The bluenette blushed at the compliment, and wished Lucy a happy birthday again before she went and sat at the team's table.

"That was nice of her."

"Yeah" the blonde turned to Evergreen, "It really was." She said smiling.

XXX

"Listen up brats."

The whole guild was quiet after that, "the S-class exams are next week, and so I will be listing who will be participating in this year's S-class exams."

Laxus was standing behind his gramps as all the other S-class mages, which were Erza,Mira,Gildarts, and him.

"This year, the participants will be eight, and no partners are allowed that also means no exceeds. Alright, first off we got Gajeel Redfox" cheers and claps were heard across the guild "Wendy Marvell" the guild was in an uproar "Natsu Dragneel, Gray Fullbuster" jokes and laughs are heard across the guild that was relieved that it was on Tenrou Island so there wasn't any repair cost damage "Freed justine, Jellal, Cobra" the guild kept on cheering harder and harder as the names rolled by "And… Lucy Heartfilia."

…

…

Silence.

Nothing but silence, as the whole guild was shell shocked silent. Laxus and the trio were worried about the petite woman, who looked on the verge of tears at the way the whole guild is looking at her, some were even looking at her with disgust while others were pitiful, and one was glaring at her, a scarlet haired woman was glaring daggers at the beautiful blonde. Lucy was about to break in front of everyone until she heard someone cheer "Go crush them whole Cosplayer."

She turned her face towards the seith mage who was raising one arm and smirking at her, behind him his babies repeated "Go Cosplayer, Go Cosplayer". She nodded her head and gave him a smile.

"I can't wait to battle with you Lucy."

"Same here Freed."

"LULU, CONGRATUALTIONSSSS!"

The blonde was tackled on the ground by the fairy mage, into a bear hug that she gladly returned. "Let's go out and celebrate, this place is a mood killer, so let's go out and have fun."said the fairy mage.

"Sure thing."

"Oh, and no boys allowed."she says as she looks towards the trio who were pouting, then Bickslow and Freed who were frowning, lastely, to Laxus, who had a scowl on his face and glaring at the brunette. Evergreen got off Lucy and quickly dragged her to the doors, but before she went out, Wendy reached to Lucy's wrist and stopped her "Ano, congratualtions Lucy-san."

"Thanks Wen, you too." Replied the blonde while ruffling the bluenette's hair, and then turned towards Ever.

"Before you ladies go listen up, we will be leaving after four days, the S-class mages will be leaving tomorrow morning to set up camp, so train well and rest well, and good luck."

XXX

The blonde was choking and rolling on the floor from laughter "I cannot believe that you think that the whole guild does not know about your relationship with Elfman."

The two girls were now at Lucy's apartment after spending the whole day shopping, and then going to a spa, having lunch together and now back at Lucy's apartment.

The fairy mage was flustered and bright red "Oh hush you, and how did the guild know? I swear to Mavis if Bickslow ratted us out, I will skin him alive."the last part she muttered but the Blonde heard it and her laughing fit started once again, before wiping her tears and answering the fairy mage "You both fight like a married couple, and you both were partners in the exams two years ago, and don't forget that at the GMG, when he was injured, you stayed with him the whole time, and even slept beside him on the chair, and you seem to forget that I was in the room with you back then."

The fairy mage turned even more red and was about to say something before Lucy continued "Oh, and let's not forget about the make-out sessions that you two had when I was" she raised her hands in a quotation mark "sleeping."

The fairy mage looked at her like she had grown two heads "You were… awake?"

Lucy only nodded her head and before she could say something , Ever was already out cold on her bedroom floor with eyes going in circles and heat seeping from her ears with a face flushed red, Lucy had to hold back her laughter to be able to help her nakama, and after she called out her name a couple of times, she was certain that the fairy mage was out and just left her there.

She went out of her apartment to look at the sky at night when she noticed a familiar spike of blonde hair that was coming her way in a hurry.

"Laxus are you okay?"

He reached her "Where have you been, we searched for you girls all day long."

"We went out a couple of places, I thought Ever told you guys where we are going."

After he calmed down a bit he looked her in the eye " Nevermind, are you two okay?" his eyes showed for a brief second the concern and worry he held in them before they turned stoic, but that didn't go unnoticed by the busty blonde.

"Yeah we are fine, did something happen?"

After a deep breath, he sighed "The council captured the man who kidnapped us the first time but it appears he doesn't remember anything, and he was badly bruised and like scared of something, so we thought something happened to you girls, your brothers were going crazy."

The blonde let all that to sink in, and deadpanned "And you didn't think to look at my apartment?"

The dragon slayer in front of her had wide eyes as if he was imagining beating himself up for not thinking about this but then remembered Ever and her celebrating "Knowing Evergreen, I thought you wouldn't be at home."

The blonde decided to accept the answer he gave her because getting to know Ever this last month, she knew his words hold only the truth "Wanna come in?"

The dragon slayer was hesitant but accepted her invitation and went in, a little alone time with the girl he was pining for was what he needed at the moment, after all the running around town to catch them both and making sure they were alright, he was worried the whole day, that maybe something happened to the both of them and- wait wait wait

… where is Evergreen.

"Where is Ever?"

Before she could answer him though, he saw her figure lying on the floor and was going to question Lucy if something happened before she interrupted him "Did you know that Ever thought the whole guild didn't know about her relationship with Elfman?"

He looked at her then at Evergreen and understanding dawned upon him of what happened to the poor soul, at last she was finally confronted with the truth that their secret relationship was not so secret as she thought it was.

" I see she was finally faced with the truth."

The blonde gal laughed and he turned to see her, and now under the light of her room and that the concern wasn't clouding his mind, he could see the state she was in.

"Tea?"

He only nodded in her direction to convey his answer, and he took his time in watching her move around the kitchen as she prepared the tea, how the shirt she was wearing only reached her thigh, how it was hugging her hourglass figure and complementing her every curve, be it from her chest that he was sure she was not wearing a bra, to her hips all the way down to her creamy thighs, her soft creamy thighs that he wished to run his hands over, to feel their softness. A strain in his pants jolted him out of his train of thoughts as he realised where he was going with this and where he was for that matter and the snicker behind him reminded him that he was not alone, the fact that Evergreen woke up and saw how he was ogling the blonde had his cheeks flaring with heat and wishing the ground to open and swallow him up-

"Oh Ever you woke up?"

He turned his attention to the blonde bombshell in front of him as he felt the fairy mage shifting closer to the door "Yeah Lulu, I'm going home alright? It has been a nice day and I have to leave well because it's late and you know the umm girls at Fairy Hills would be worried that I'm still not home yet so yeah goodnight." She rushed out the door but before it closed, he could see her winking at him. They both stared at the door as it closed, after a few seconds of silence Lucy turned to Laxus "She was totally going to Elfman's house wasn't she?"

He just nodded at her keeping his gaze at the door "It amazes me how oblivious she thinks we are of her whereabouts."

"Shouldn't we tell her about the council?"

He turned to face her "I believe it's a bit too late for that Blondie."

She looked up at him"You're blond too Laxus!"

She pouted at him and he smirked down at her, just then the water started boiling and Lucy went to prepare the tea while he went to her couch to sit down. He noticed a flyer on the coffee table in front of him and his eyes drifted to the words '_AC/DC live concert on Friday the 7__th__, in Crocus'._

"You like rock music Blondie?" he asked as he held the flyer up to her while she was bringing the tea "Yeah, I do. And you're blond too Laxus."

He smirked "Interesting, what kind of bands do you listen to?"

"Mainly AC/DC because I like them so much, but I listen to a few others like Aerosmith, Metallica, Guns N' Roses and such." She said as she placed the mug in front of him.

Laxus was now sure that this girl was perfect for him"What is your favourite AC/DC song?"

She thought for a while, doing the signature thinking pose that Laxus finds utterly adorable, taping her finger on her chin while slightly pouting and eyes slightly closed, "Highway to Hell."

"Same" was his simple response, but the shocked look on Lucy's face made him believe that he said something wrong.

"Really?" she asked her face showing the surprise to his answer, and he nodded slowly suddenly feeling really nervous under her surprised look, like should he have said something else?

"Hmm, I thought it would be something else." She said taking a sip from her tea.

Now this had him intrigued and raising his eyebrows "Really, like what?"

While trying her hardest to stifle her giggle she answered "Thunderstruck."

The mirth playing in her eyes was seen clearly by the Lightning slayer,and he shouldn't be surprised, no not at all, in fact he should have seen this one coming, so while playfully glaring at her, he pouted "You have been really mean to me lately Blondie."

Lucy could not for the life of her imagine that seeing Laxus pout would be this adorable, in fact she had to fight the urge of taking a photo of him like this, so she just laughed a little and shrugged "First of all you deserved it after all the pranks you pulled on me this last month and well I have to play the part the guild had given me now you know."

His eyes softened and he held a reassuring smile on his face "They will come around, they always do."

"Oh what, I was just joking with you Laxus."

'Liar' the flash of pain and hurt was seen in her eyes by the slayer before she masked it away "But really thank you so much for taking from your time, you and the Raijinshuu to keep me company this last month, I know I have my brothers and I wasn't alone but knowing you guys has really pulled me through this month, so thank you." A smile of appreciation adorned her face, and Laxus could only hope that one day everything will be alright, that the girl in front of him would return back to her bubbly self, that the whole guild would once again talk to her and not treat her like how she is being treated right now.

"Well I better get going, tomorrow I'm leaving." He rose from his seat.

"Oh yeah" she said as she rose from her seat and led him to the door "Good night Laxus and stay safe."

He waved her goodbye and just before she closed the door he called out to her "Yeah?"

"Kick some ass in the exams, I will be cheering for you, good luck." And with that he teleported away probably back to his house leaving a smiling Lucy at her doorstep, before she turned away and closed the door behind her.

XXX

Laxus's whole body was in a turmoil, he just couldn't understand that someone like Lucy would suffer like this, the whole guild turned a blind eye on her existence, even Natsu and Gray, even though he occasionally saw them glancing her way sadly, they didn't attempt at all to speak to her or to ask of her wellbeing, not at all. And Erza. Oh Erza was soon going to face his wrath if she didn't end that stupid punishment, he knew why Erza did it, and he couldn't believe his jiji had let her do it, like really after he found out about the sacrifice Lucy did, he goes and let's Erza punish her.

He saw how she used to glare daggers at her whenever Lucy was close to Jellal, or how the look of utter betrayal crossed her face when Jellal chose to go on a mission with Lucy and not her, and he heard her ranting about her and how she is stealing Jellal away from her when she realised her relationship with Natsu could not work because he has feelings for Lisanna, and what's shocking was that she was ranting to Mira and Mira seemed to believe her and promised her to keep an eye open. And when she finally had the chance to ruin her, she took it, she took it like it was a strawberry cake right in front of her, not caring who it could hurt on the way.

He was mad, he was really mad, and his inner beast just wanted to lash out at the fact that he cannot help her in anyway, he just wanted to take the pain away, wants her to feel safe, he doesn't want her to look like that ever again, and he was so frustrated, because he didn't know. He didn't know why he was feeling so hurt over seeing her sad, why he was imagining storming over to Erza's and knocking some sense into her, do anything in his power to erase the sadness from her eyes, he already started on one thing that will bring back her light again but now with this he put it on hold.

He seriously needs to know why he is feeling this way and what the hell is happening to him, so for now some training would do him good.

**With Lucy:**

She didn't know when she became so comfortable with the lightning dragon slayer, but she was grateful for it, because somehow, through all of this, he has given her hope, that there are still people out there that understand her, that deem her as a precious person for them, she knew that the lightning dragon slayer now holds a special place in her heart, for he and his team plus her siblings have been with her this whole month never leaving her side.

She regrets it, she regrets it greatly. That thin scar on her wrist has become quite invisible if not focused upon, to think that she might not had this opportunity, to finally reunite with her brothers, to find great friends in people she never thought she would be this close to, she was glad that Loke saved her back then, but that meant she was not allowed to sleep alone ever again, so she waited for one of her spirits to appear, and just then a shimmer of gold and the sound of a bell signaled one of her spirits's arrival, and of course it was Loke.

Without a word she climbed to her bed and he sat next to her, she closed her eyes waiting for sleep to take her, and as well held the hand of her spirit, whose very presence was calming the dark sides of her brain. She never told anyone that she tried to commit suicide, she wasn't able to let people worry about her more, especially not her brothers, and now the Raijinshuu and Laxus.

LAXUS! Oh my god what would happen if he knew, if he knew what happened back then, over the last month she noticed how protective he was of her, and to know she almost killed herself, he wouldn't let her out of his sight. But now that she thinks about it, why did she try to do it? She remembers she couldn't anymore handle the pain, that everytime she held a key she would have a panic attack, that she would somehow kill another spirit without noticing. She was always clever to not think about those stuff around Cobra, he would never let her leave his side.

No, she wouldn't tell anybody about what happened, only her spirits knew, and that is enough. She doesn't need more people worrying about her. That was her last thought before she drifted off to sleep, her loyal spirit still by her side, as a tear rolled by on his cheek, remembering what happened to her.

_He was in the celestial spirit world, talking with Virgo when he felt it, he felt his contract slowly breaking, he turned wide eyed to Virgo to see that she as well as all the others felt it. He didn't hesitate, didn't think twice before he opened his own gate, and the sight that greeted him, was something that still haunts him for now._

_It was in the middle of the night, and there in front of him, laid the girl who gave up so much for him, defied and stood up against the celestial spirit king for him, reunited him with his love, Aries, laying in her own pool of blood, light fading from her eyes, and she was about to take her last breath, before he rushed forward and took her to the celestial spirit realm, where they all rushed to save her. He knew the sacrifice she made took a toll on her mind, on her very soul, but not to this extent, no to her deciding to kill herself, not to saying good bye to the whole world and to never see it again._

_This night, was the worse that could be. When she woke up, all her spirits ran to her side and hugged her, all of them crying over her, Virgo had tears rolling from her eyes as she called her hime, asked her multiple times, why. WHY? Why would she do that? Why would she give up her life? Capricorn was hugging her reprimanding her that even though she lost the family she had on Earthland, she had a family here, all are here for her, even if she tried to push them away, even if she tried shutting herself out of everything else in the world, that they would not let her go, that they would stay here, and no matter where she went, they would follow her. He was screaming at her all of this, and Loke just stood there at the sidelines, watching everyone around her._

_He walked up to her, and they made a path to him._

_The sound of a slap could echo in the realm, a hand print was on her face, his bangs were covering his face, all of the spirits surrounding them gasped at his actions, and moved to intervene but Capricorn held them back, and nodded to them to not to._

"_How could you?" was all he managed to whisper as his tears rolled on his cheeks, bangs still covering his face, fists clenched on his sides._

_The blonde turned her head to him and breathed out "Loke…"_

"_HOW COULD YOU!" he screamed "you think this is FAIR! You think it will bring her back? This is wrong. You didn't actually kill Aquarius."_

"_Loke please stop." She sobbed. He held her shoulders and shook them so she could look at him, and she saw the pain in his eyes" I won't stop. I can't stand by when a friend of mine is disappearing before my eyes. I said I'm going to save you no matter what. You won't die! I won't let you die! What's the point of magic, if I can't use it to protect my friends."_

"_Loke, I just want to be gone, to disappear." He held her close to him, and with tears still cascading his face he continued in a low voice "you can't. you disappearing isn't going to bring Aquarius back! All it will do is create more sadness! It's not a crime.. caring about your friends is not a crime! If you disappear, then Aries, myself, and everyone else here will be filled with sadness!"_

_She hugged him and cried, cried for hours on his shoulders "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry" she kept repeating. She knew what he did, those were the same words she said to him when he was fading in front of karen's grave. He let go of her a bit "By the way about the slap…" "It's okay Loke, I needed that."When she got back to Earthland, a week passed here._

Loke sighed watching his princess sleep 'Lucy, I'm glad you found someone here for you, and I hope he can lift all your worries, doubts and everything that seem to be suffocating you. Even if you don't realise what you feel for him now, you will eventually'.

XXX

Four days passed by and now the participants of the exams are boarding the ship, ready to embark on their journey, and they did.

About thirty minutes left to reach Tenrou island, the master walked out on the deck and cleared his throat "Listen up brats, the exams start now, I will hand you now a riddle that will take you to a place, and in this place you will have another riddle , that will request of you to bring something, and you have to bring it back to the base camp that is set on the island, you have till midnight. If you encounter someone you could choose to fight him or not, and the object you need to bring varies a lot, so be careful because if the object broke, you are instantly out. Now, all of you, one by one , come and get the envelope designed for you."

One by one, they each got the one involving them "Now, once we reach the shore you will be able to open them. Even if you tried now, there is a spell on them that won't let you. Good luck. Oh and this year we have a surprise, as well as all around the the island there are camera lacrima that shows us what is happening with each participant, we will be able to see everything, and at the guild will also be able to see everything, so rest assured that we will know of everything going on."

Once they reached the shore, the master gave the signal for them to start, Lucy ran a distance in the woods and then opened her envelope and read what's inside of it

'_What has roots as nobody sees,  
Is taller than trees,  
Up, up it goes,  
And yet never grows?_'

'Hmm, what has roots as nobody sees, is taller than trees…' she thought turning around her, an idea popped into her mind, she climbed up a tree so she can see better around her, the view was breathtaking as she can see all that surrounds her, as she was looking something caught her eye 'what has roots as nobody sees, is taller than trees, up, up it goes, and yet never grows… of course!' exclaimed the blonde as she climbed down the tree and ran the direction of her second clue, that was now as she figured it out, on a mountain.

**Back at the base camp:**

"She is clever." A man said stroking his beard.

"Lucy-san has an intelligence that would put Rufus to shame." A white haired woman said.

"Ay, Blondie is smart."

"But she needs more than her wits to become an S-class, and I don't think Lucy-san has the power needed." A blond haired man that had a scar on his brow and is sporting an earring said.

Right now the competitors along with the S-class mages and a few from the guild that came to cheer , like the rest of the trio as well as the raijinshuu, the strauss siblings and Cana, Levy and more are on the island.

**With Lucy:**

After an hour and a half, she finally reached her destination, and after an hour of climbing up the mountain, she reached her destination, and went to it's entrance, but a rune stopped her from entering.

"Solve the riddle to be able to enter and grab the object. _A box without hinges, key, or lid, Yet golden treasure inside is hid. _Answer correctly and you shall enter."

'Hmm… what could it be?' the blonde thought as she sat in front of the entrance, sure she could ask jiji Crux, but she feels it's like cheating so she won't, plus she still has six hours till midnight, she has time.

After half an hour of looking at anything beside her, she saw a bird flying towards a tree, where as she saw had the nest there 'Aww so cute, how the bird mother is cuddling her… eggs. Egg' she stood up and turned to the runes in front of her "An egg."

The runes started disappearing in front of her and a smile graced her face 'I might be able to do it.' She thought as she walked in the cave.

Now, she figured out the riddle was an egg, but… never in her life she thought that what she was supposed to bring back was an egg, and especially from a monster that is directly above the egg. She contemplated how she is going to take that glowing egg without breaking it back to camp as she hid behind a rock.

"Open gate of the maiden, Virgo." She whispered, and the maid appeared crouching beside her, "How may I help you Hime?"

"I need you to dig a tunnel next to the egg and take it without letting that monster notice." She really hated not being able to do anything herself and instead send her spirit to get the egg.

"Understood Hime."

Virgo wasted no time and dug a tunnel that opened just below the belly of the monster and right next to the egg, she grabbed the egg and got back to her master's side through the tunnel.

"Thank you Virgo."

"It was my pleasure. Punishment Hime?"

The blonde shook her head no, and took the egg from her spirit and quietly made it back, taking small steps while having her eyes on the monster, it was barely visible because it was dark in the cave, but the egg was shining, which made it easy for Lucy to see. She couldn't make out of the monster much except his belly was big, covered in maroon leather, the likes of which as a snake. She kept walking backwards until- _SNAP! _

The blonde looked down and saw that she stepped on a bone, carefully pulling her head up, she locked eyes with the beast's red ones, who snarled at her and went for the attack but Lucy was quick on her feet.

"Open gate of the Crow, Corvus!" she summoned her spirit while running, in a flash of gold he appeared beside her running"Yes Princess."

"I need you to transport us through your shadow, will that be possible?"

"Of course Princess, hold on!" he flashed her a grin, and picked her up while she hugged the egg closer to her, it was a fairly large egg, almost the same as that of an exceed, and transformed into his shadows and carried the blonde girl with the egg straight to the camp site.

After an hour she reached the campsite, she saw that Freed, Jellal, Cobra and Gajeel are there, she went and handed the egg to the master who was really happy and gave her his congrats.

"Lucy-san, you were amazing, I didn't know you have Corvus the Crow."

The blonde turned to see her celestial mage friend, Yukino. "Yukino-san, thank you so much, what are you doing here?" she said as she hugged the white haired girl.

"Master Makarov asked some S-class mages from other guilds to participate in this year's S-class exams, so Sting-sama and Rogue-sama both came here today and I tagged along."

"Wow that is amazing!" 'Probably the surprise master was taking about.' "Do you know who else is here?"

"Ah yes, other than Sting-sama and Rogue-sama, there is Jura-san and Kagura-san, as well as your guild's S-class."

"Oh wow, master is going all out."

Yukino nodded her head, Lucy excused herself and went to her brothers, who congratulated her upon seeing her and they sat there talking about what happened with them, the raijinshuu as well came and sat with them after they gave their congrats. Soon all the competitors came back before the clock hit midnight, and they all went to sleep waiting for the next day competition.

The next day, after they were fed and rested, they rounded the master who cleared his throat "Good morning brats, hope you had a good rest, today's exam will be the second before the last, so I hope you are prepared. Now for today's quest, in these two bowls in front of me are your names in one bowl, and the S-class mages in the other, the name that I draw from here will face off against an S-class that I draw from the other bowl. It is not important to win the match, but to hold your ground till the timer is up, which is 30 minutes. Now I will begin drawing a name and then an S-class and you will take on the field in front of us which is enough space to handle damage. Now from the nominees we have" he reached inside the bowl and moved his hand a bit pulling out a paper, all of them were tensed about this whole exam today "Lucy Heartfilia" her heart started ramming inside of her chest "who will face off against" he reached in the next bowl 'Please don't be someone deadly, please don't be someone deadly…!'

The grim look on master's face says it all, he looked at her and then at the paper back again "Erza Scarlet."

She looked at the requip mage to see her smirking, she turned and looked at her brothers, who gave her a nod, she smiled to them.

"Bring it Scarlet!"

"You're on Heartfilia!".

**Hello everyone , hope you enjoyed this chapter. I cried while writing it, the next chapter will be the fight plus the end of the exams. Oh and both riddles are from the movie The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.**

**See you next chapter ****.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Hello everyone, welcome to this chapter, which is the fight…**

**Thank you so much for reading, please leave your reviews, I appreciate it.**

Both girls went to the field, as for the onlookers, they were gathered in groups at different places around the field, the sabers and Jura plus Kagura in one, the trio and the raijinshuu plus Laxus in another,team Natsu in one as well and lacrima cameras are floating above the two fighters.

Lucy stood on one end while Erza on the other, the master came between them and held up his hand"The match will last for 30 minutes, the match will immediately be over if one of the two gets knocked out. Now are you both ready?"

He looked at both of them and they both nodded "1,2,3, FIGHT!" he let down his hand and stepped away.

Both girls looked at each other, and in a split of a second lunged forward.

"Requip, heaven's wheel armor."

"Stardress: Taurus form!"

The sword that Erza was holding came directly for her head, but was stopped by her whip that she activated while she was attacking, she held on to the whip that had now the sword and pulled at it, making the sword fly into a tree.

They stood there, a few steps between them.

"Wow, I didn't know Lucy-san can transform as well!" exclaimed the white haired celestial mage.

"What do you mean Yukino-san?"

"Sting-sama, not every celestial spirit mage can do that, and I've never heard of anyone doing it, but there was a myth that if the celestial spirit mage was powerful enough, she could obtain the power of her spirits."

"Wow!" they all exclaimed.

"Nice trick Heartfilia! Let's see how you can stop me now!" she said dangling her key ring in front of her.

Lucy just smirked "Oh really? I at least thought you would play fair, never thought you could be so low."

Others started to murmur "Who knew Erza-san played dirty?" "I thought she was all about honor, guess we were proven wrong Rogue." "Now Lucy-san cannot fight back, because she took her keys." Yukino added.

Erza was smirking "You're gonna give up no- what the hell?"

The key ring started jingling in her hand and gave a pulse of a magic before disappearing and appearing on Lucy's belt, in its rightful place.

Erza was shell shocked , as well as all the others, while Lucy just looked at Laxus and smiled 'Arigato, Laxus.' He smirked back her way, she nodded her head and turned towards Erza who was over her shock and seething in anger.

Erza changed into her flight armor and charged at Lucy who leapt back, she kept charging at Lucy and the blonde was barely able to dodge 'Damn she's fast!'

Erza came speeding her way and knocked her back into a tree, the tree broke from the contact and the blonde fell on the floor "It appears it would be wise for you if you surrender now, killer!"

The guests gasped "Why would Erza-san call her a killer?" asked Jura.

Gray walked up to them and explained to them what happened, after he was done Yukino had tears in her eyes, Rogue and Sting were clenching their fists, and Jura was impassive while Kagura was angry.

"I can't believe Lucy-san killed someone?!"

"Well not everyone is what they look like!" Sting said "Yukino-san I think it would be better if you didn't talk to her anymore!"

The white haired celestial mage only nodded her head while covering her mouth with her hand. Laxus and Cobra both heard what they were talking about and were beyond pissed.

A few minutes later, Lucy stood up slowly "Give up Erza? No way! Plus I have a trick up my sleeve, star dress combination: Cancer and Scorpio!"

Light adorned Lucy's body, before it faded and revealed her wearing a short red Kimono, beneath it a black short reaching her mid thigh. She is holding twin blades that are reminiscent of scissors, her hair held up in a high ponytail tightened by a red ribbon and is sporting a black headband, she is wearing knee length black sandals, and has a chain tail the likes of a scorpion, but it was thinner. On her hand you can see what resembles an X, it was both Cancer's and Scorpio's keys.

She sprinted forward swiping a clean hit on Erza's cheek, where now blood was pouring from it.

'I didn't even notice her!' thought Erza as she looked back at Lucy , holding up her hand to feel the wound on her cheek, Lucy was standing proud and tall. Erza grit her teeth and attacked. The clinking of swords was the only thing that can be heard, the onlookers couldn't keep up except for the dragon slayers, everything was moving way too fast.

"Sonic Claw!" Erza dashed towards Lucy at high speed and slashed her from every direction, creating a thick fog of dust.

'Did I get her?'looked Erza towards where Lucy supposed to be. Dust cleared and Lucy was found in a water barrier "Star dress:Aquarius form!"

Erza had her eyes wide open 'Not even a scratch? Oh but she is panting! Her magic must be nearly out. A simple strike could finish her!' erza moved to strike but the look on the Blonde's face stopped her dead in her track 'Since when Lucy held such an expression? The expression of a… predator.'

Lucy held up her hands on both sides, the dust started swirling beside her at a high speed, forming little waves of sand, she then jumped and twirled in the air, bringing her hands forward "Aqua Metria!" the dust like wave lunged forward towards Erza who at the last moment sliced through it with her Wind God Sword, changing into her Wind God Armor. The dust subsided but it was still hard to see. But she could hear something, some words like "Tetrabiblos", "Malevolent", and "88 Stars…" recognition flashed between her eyes and she quickly turned to her adamantine armor.

The dust cleared showing Lucy glowing, her eyes had magical golden circles in them "Urano Metria!" the orbs that were now visible for Erza charged fully at her, but she was able to block some of them with her armor, though she took a few damage.

The onlookers were in awe, never had they seen something so beautiful.

Lucy looked at the timer panting'9 minutes left! I have to hurry' she looked back where Erza supposed to be, but she didn't see her. Turning her head in different directions, she didn't spot her, until she felt a magical power coming behind her, and turns just in time to hear the words "GRAND CHARIOT!"

The seven stars hit Lucy in the back, she screamed at the top of her lungs, and then slumped on the ground, having one eye open and the other closed. The spectators had their jaws on the floor, who could believe that Erza would have to resort to such a strong spell to win against Lucy?

"Surely now the blonde cannot stand up!" Kagura said grinning.

"Actually, now's her time to shine!" Cobra interjected, with a grin on his face, the rest of the trio also grinning.

' _Her key, the demon Lucilia is very powerful, but it has a weakness. The same way it came to her, the same way she will receive it. Lucilia came to her bloody and bruised, physically and magically drained, and so to open her gate, the caster should be in the same condition, wich Lulu is in now.'_

"Oh she has this in the bag now!" whistled Jellal.

They all looked at them dumbfounded. They wanted to question more but a slight movement stopped them from talking, as they saw Lucy slowly rise, her star dress disappearing.

"What are you doing still up killer?"

"You call me killer because I saved my brothers, now how about you meet that killer?"

'Please child stop it, you will hurt yourself! Only 6 minutes left! Please stop!' the master looked at her with a fearful expression.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean…" Lucy said putting her hand above her heart "This! Open gate of the Demon, Lucilia!".

The sky turned dark, the clouds swirling together forming a circle, from it a black bean of light shot straight at Lucy, a bright yellow light shone near her chest, it was in the form of a key. When the light faded, there stood Lucy, or better yet, Lucilia, in all her glory. Her black tail swishing behind her, her black hallow eyes piercing her opponent, red claws with the tip of them black twitching waiting for action, and her red crimson lips were smirking.

"What the…?" Gray was looking petrified.

"Who- who is this?"asked Erza taking a step back.

"The killer." Lucy answered before holding her hand up "Rumble!"

A tornado like shot from behind Erza that she dodged quickly. Erza looked at the space where she was and then back at Lucy, before changing into her Clear Heart Clothing and going in for the attack, sword in hand.

With merely inches away from her, Lucy held out her hand "Raising her pain sensitivity till hundred." And just before she could hit her, Lucy ducked and punched her in the stomach sending her flying in a tree, while screaming in pain.

"Do you get who I am now Erza?"

Erza looked at her, for the first time in her life, she didn't know what to do, she choked out "Wh-who?"

"You will soon find out."

Nine magical circles appeared above Erza "This is the same spell that killed the demon Gazul, but don't worry I control how much power put into it…"

Erza looked above her then back at Lucy "Wh-WHAT?!"

Lucy started to glow, as she started chanting:

"**Let the thunder roar**

**Let the sea rage**

**Let the souls scream**

**Let the mind be controlled**

**Let the dead rise**

**Let the senses fade**

**Let the explosives fire**

**Let the shields defend**

**Let the will freeze..."**

All of them were looking at her with open jaws and wide eyes, no one was able to tear their eyes from Lucy, who was chanting the spell, standing gracefully on that spot of grass, her tail behind her, her head held up high, her empty black eyes pierce looking, nobody wanted her to continue afraid of what might happen to Erza, but at the same time nobody wanted her to stop, and actually wanting to see what will happen.

"**BE JUDGED BY THE NINE DEMON GATES**

**TARTA-"**

"STOP! TIME IS UP!" shouted master.

Lucy stopped her spell, the magic circles slowly started to disappear, and turned to the master who was walking towards her…

"Lucy, my child. What is this?" he asked motioning to her attire.

"This" she answered motioning her hands up and down "is what saved my brothers, is what brought back…" she took a deep breath "Nevermind!" she dropped her transformation and turned to leave…

"It's what brought me back from the dead."

She whipped her head to face him "Jellal what are you doing?"

He walked up to her "I've had enough Lu, I've had enough of them talking down to you, of other guilds thinking low of you, you saved me back then, all of us, we would have died if it weren't for you" he turned to the others "So what if she killed a demon, killed an evil person that was gonna harm her family" he turned to Erza "would you like to be having a funeral for four of your guild members, or for them to be safe, huh?" she looked away from him "ANSWER ME ERZA!"

"Jellal, please stop it let it go okay, let's just go back to the camp."

"No Lucy, they need to know what happened, I don't care anymore."Mid said as he approached her and hugged her to help her stand, she was staggering a bit.

"My child what is this, what does he mean back from the dead?"

"It means Master that I died, I took a shot and died then, the demon was powerful, and had so many powers, his poison even hurt Erik!"

"What?" Levy gasped out.

"He was playing with us, tossing poison at me, multiplying himself , he was physically strong, we were crushed within minutes, and Lucy wasn't able to do anything because he had some type of link magic, that when she went to summon a spirit, she and the spirit would both feel immense pain."explained Cobra.

"He put a barrier around her, we couldn't reach her, and when a shot of poison was directed her way, Jellal used Meteor to pass the barrier and took the hit." Mid said while rubbing his hand on his sister's back for she was crying.

"And then, me and Mid saw Jellal, with… ahem… his whole side missing, and that's when Lucy lost it, she unlocked her demon key and killed him, plus revived Jellal, if you haven't figured out by now, Lucilia has the powers of the nine demon gates."

The master stood there, hearing the explanation, and frowning at what happened "Child, what haven't you told me any of this?"

The blonde turned from her brother's embrace "Did you give me a chance to explain master before you laid down the punishment?"

The master looked at her, then hang his head low, he was truly ashamed for he has failed one of his children "I have failed you Lucy, I am sorry."

"Don't be, I am not mad, and I don't hold any hatred against any of them, it's just, I was left behind once again, by the same family. And if Erza thinks I don't know why she did what she did, then she is an idiot." She turned to Erza "Just so you know, those three are my adoptive brothers, my parents adopted them when I was three, I didn't remember them at first because I had amnesia when I was young." Mid took his sister back to camp followed by the rest of the trio to check up that she was fine.

The master was speechless, sad, angry, but most of all, hurting. His heart ached for the blonde. He looked over everyone and saw the same, the sorrowful eyes glancing all around, the tears flowing like rivers, "What have I done?" he heard Erza say as she held her head between her hands and rocked back and forth.

Gray was now on the floor, regretting that he didn't stand up for her, that he thought so lowly of her, while Mira was ashamed for what she pegged Lucy for, the whole guild was deeply depressed, all thinking the same thing, Gildarts held new respect for the woman, and Cana who was crying on his shoulder, couldn't believe that she let herself drift from Lucy, that she wasn't there for her like Lucy was for her. Natsu realised that he might have lost his best friend for good, the same for Gray.

"Oi" a shout brought back their attention, "you lot are all crying now while ten minutes ago you were hating on her, stop the hell you think you are doing and get up, we have the exams to finish, the first match was won by Blondie. You want to make it up to her? Fine do so, but wait till later. Jiji let's continue with the exams".

Master looked at his grandson, proudly. True, they will all make it up to her, but not now, everything has a time and place, and right now, it is time for exams.

The matches continued, at first they were a bit hesitant, but after a while they got back into it. Laxus knew that they wanted to apologize then and there, but he also knew that Lucy was in an emotional state right now, so they could do that later, hopefully after contemplating their mistakes.

The rest of the fights that followed were like this:

Gajeel vs Rogue, Gajeel won by k.o and advanced.

Jellal vs Jura, Jellal won by the time running out and advanced.

Cobra vs Sting, Cobra won by k.o and advanced.

Natsu vs Laxus, Natsy lost miserably, and so he was out.

Gray vs Gildarts, Gray lost by k.o.

Wendy vs Mira, Wendy lost and she won't be able to sleep for at least a month.

Freed vs Kagura, Freed lost.

And that was a wrap of the day, everybody went to sleep early, worn out emotionally and physically. Few tried to approach the blonde sitting with the Raijinshuu, Laxus and the trio, but one glare from Laxus would send them home packing.

XXX

It was in the middle of the night, when Lucy woke up breathing hard. Another nightmare plagued her mind, this one was different. She dreamt that the raijinshuu, the trio, Laxus, everything that happened till now was not real, that it was just her imagination. She shook her head to clear up her thoughts, and took a deep breath. No spirit was with her tonight so the others won't suspect a thing, their master's orders.

She got up from her sleeping bag and decided to take a walk. She found a clearing soon after, where she just collapsed and cried, she was tired, extremely so emotionally. She sobbed to let go of all of this, she hated what happened today,how everyone was looking at her, how Yukino came to apologize for god knows what but didn't come near her for some unknown reasons(The unknown reason was Laxus) and she was afraid she ruined the exams, those thoughts continued swimming in her mind until she felt a weight on her shoulders.

Startled she looked up, to find Laxus looking at her worriedly, his coat lay on her shoulders. She quickly wiped away her tears and smiled reassuringly, but he won't have any of it.

"Break."

The blonde looked up at him, confusion written on her face "Huh?"

"Break down, use me as something to lean on, cry your heart out, I promise you I won't tell anyone, I will be here by your side if you want to talk about it, and if not, just break, I will still be here. Me, Freed, Ever and Bickslow, as well as your brothers, we are all here for you, so you don't have to hide your feelings from us."

Lucy looked up at the man who sat beside her, not noticing her tears were flowing yet again. She smiled weakly at him, and all he wanted to was lean down and kiss her. She rested her head on his shoulder "I think I'm done crying anymore, I feel like a weak little drama queen, but I can't help it. I let all these emotions inside of me for the past month that I just broke."

"You are not a drama queen, I will tell you that. That part is reserved only for Freed. I can't have two of your kind, it would take too much of me to deal with you both."

She looked at him, shocked "Laxus Dreyar, did you just make a joke?"

He let out a booming laugh, and soon she joined him, laughing with him under the starry night sky, it felt right. "I'm right though aren't I? He just makes a big deal out of everything."

The blonde laughed beside him, until she heard a shout "HEY! I do not make a big deal out of everything!" a smack was heard "Shush you idiot, you exposed us!" "Oi Evergreen I wasn't the one who yelled, Freed was." "Oh I thought you were at my right and Freed at my left." "Well next time maybe look at who you are smacking with that stupid fan of yours." "EXCUSE ME!" "Be quiet you idiots." "Shut it Freed!" both Ever and Bicks glared at the green haired man.

Both blondes turned around and looked at the bush behind them, where the raijinshuu were at the moment arguing, and looked back at each other where Lucy giggled and Laxus smirked down at her.

"Thank you." She said looking at him with her big brown doe eyes.

"Always." He smiled down at her, a genuine smile. Lucy couldn't help the blush that creeped all the way to her cheeks, or the wonder that showed on her face. That was the first time she ever saw Laxus smile, a real smile. Joy seeped through her veins, because she was the reason for such a beautiful smile. Right at this moment, looking into his stormy grey blue eyes, all she wanted to do was kiss him.

WAIT WHAT! The blonde jolted upright and Laxus looked at her confused, she scratched the back of her head , blushing deep red while reprimanding herself 'Bad Lucy!'. The huge blond shook his head at her while smiling, then stood up and looked at her "Wanna go back to the camp?" he extended his hand to help her up.

"I'm not really sleepy." She said while she took his hand. The sparks that flew from that simple touch had Lucy blushing and Laxus smiling.

"That's great because we brought marshmallows" came Evergreen bouncing her way over, till she saw her leader's coat on the blonde girl and stopped in her tracks, giving him a knowing smirk.

"Yeah, we all woke up and we thought let's wake all the others and make a fire, eat some marshis and sit with each other." Continued Bickslow, grinning when he saw the coat on the blonde.

"Or you just woke up after us, went and snooped at us, took this bag of marshmallows with you, so if we caught you, you would use it as an excuse that you weren't actually snooping at us. No in fact you came to call us over, after you saw that we weren't sleeping in our bags, to have some bonding time with each other. Ain't that right Ever and Bicks?" inquired Laxus as he looked at the two with a raised eyebrow.

The blonde looked astonished at Laxus, the two in front of them were both speechless, opening and closing their mouth, gaping at him, they were about to answer them when Freed cut in "I told both of you that it was a lame excuse, but you wouldn't believe me!"

Bickslow turned to look at him "Oi Freed, don't you have someone to fantasize about in some corner?"

"Why you…" freed started coming closer to the seith mage, his face ablaze, while Bicks had his babies flying around him.

"I for one would love some marshis, as Bicks puts them, so why not make a fire here, it's a beautiful place." Stepped the blonde up between the two, they both seemed to relax when they saw her smiling again, and all agreed, Freed was blushing mad as he saw the coat on her, from the bush they didn't see that the cost was their leader's.

Soon enough, they made a fire and sat beside it. They were about to open the bag of marshmallow, when they heard shouting.

"Lu where are you?"

The trio came speeding their way but stop when they see the view in front of them, their little sister bundled in a coat that was not her own, sitting next to Laxus the owner of the coat, on her right was Ever and the both females were preparing some marshmallows on a stick, while Freed and Bickslow were starting the fire, they all visibly relax and Jellal steps up to them "Mind if we join you?"

"Not at all" replied Freed.

So, the usual gang sat beside the fire, all chatting and eating marshmallows, then Virgo popped out of nowhere bringing them chocolate sauce, then bowing down, asking for punishment, getting declined by her princess after she thanked her, then back to the spirit world she went.

"So Blondie, you punish your spirits?" Lucy turned to see a smirking Laxus, an eyebrow wiggling Bickslow, a flushing Freed, and a snickering Evergreen.

"No no, it's just she always says that.. but I never do that." She tried to explain while her face flushed with embarrassment. They all laughed and teased her.

"So Lu, I heard master say that he will lift your punishment after the trials are over."

"Really? Thank Mavis." Beamed the blonde.

"Congrats Lulu. Now after the trials, we can finally go on a mission together."

"Yeah, that's true Ever."

"Now Sunshine, you are no longer a part of team Natsu, so why not join our team?" asked Midnight.

Lucy contemplated for a while his proposal, sure she would be with her brothers all the time, and she would be able to go on jobs with them freely and not take permission from anyone else like she used to do when she was with team Natsu, but she wasn't sure.

"Hmmm… no."

"WHAT?" the trio asked flabbergasted.

"Don't get me wrong I love all of you with my heart, but you would baby me the whole time, and even if you denied it, I know you will."

The trio looked at each other, what she was said was spot on, but it's because they love her, they just want to make sure she was alright, but maybe what she needs is to stretch her wings and fly off, so they nodded their heads, accepting her answer.

"And I kind of as well wanted to see, if I … hmm if I could…" Lucy scratched the back of her neck, she was nervous that was obvious, and the others started to get worried.

"If you could what Lucy?" asked Evergreen.

"If I could, like, I don't know, maybe join your team?" she asked sheepishly, while sinking back.

The others were stunned, especially Laxus. The girl he had been dreaming of, though he would never admit that, the girl he wants to be closer to, wants to be on his team? His heart was going mile a second, he couldn't think straight, and he looked at his team mates to see they are looking the same as him, wide eyes and mouth gaping.

Lucy fidgeted nervously under their gaze, she quickly regretted what she said, surely they wouldn't take someone as weak as her, no matter what they tell her, she was still weak, and it's evident in the fact that she has to be beaten up for her to be able to summon Lucilia. Now she knows that she can't do anything about that, but she couldn't help but think that way. So she lifts her head up to tell them to forget about it, when suddenly her back hits the grass and she was in a death grip by none other than Evergreen.

"Ever…?"

"You idiot Lulu, of course we want you on our team. We just couldn't find a way to ask you. We thought you wanted to go with your brothers."

Lucy looked down at Evergreen's face that was resting on her chest "Really?"

"Yes really, finally I can have another girl with me other than Freed."

"HEY! Excuse you Evergreen, I am a man."

She sat up and looked at Freed, who was bristling in anger, took out her fan and started fanning herself "Are you? Honey you don't even know the definition of manly."

"Oh and you do?" she nodded, her head held up high "Of course you do, your boyfriend shouts manly all the time for Mavis's sake."

Her eyes bulged out, her face red. Jellal and Midnight had their eyes wide while Cobra was just chuckling and muttering "I knew it". Evergreen looked around her and saw the facial expressions of the trio. She seethed in anger and retaliated "Well at least he knows how manly he is!"

"OH! Of course because manly is when you think the whole guild doesn't know about your relationship and let's not forget how manly it is to make out with someone else sleeping in the room, specifically in the infirmary."

Lucy who was laughing silently all the time looked up at Freed shocked, how the hell did he know?! Evergreen started to turn slowly to face Lucy , bangs covering her face "Lucy?" asked Ever in a threatening voice.

"Listen Ever I didn't tell anyone I swear" she looked around her frantically for a way out, and that's when she saw it, the sly smirk on the maroon haired poison dragon slayer 'You asshole!', and his smirk grew wider, for he heard her.

She didn't have time to think for Evergreen jumped on her again and started to do the one thing that came to her mind , she started tickling her. First she started cause she was angry at Lucy for telling, but she couldn't help the small smile that snuck on her face, seeing the little bonde try to pry Evergreen off of her while laughing her heart out, she couldn't but join her. And at that moment, Evergreen's tickling slowed down and Lucy took that chance to flip Evergreen off of her and run, but was soon tackled down by Bickslow, who started leaning forward on her, she looked at him quizzically then she saw his fingers, she knew what will come if she doesn't get up fast and run, which she did, she went and hid behind Cobra who was laughing at his little sister.

"Cobra help me, this is all your fault." She hissed as she saw Ever and Bicks closing in on her.

"Sure!" he said as he caged her in his hands and called to them "Here she is come and take her."

"What the!" she didn't think twice by reaching with her foot, and kicking him where the sun don't shine, he stumbled forward in pain "What was that for Lu?"

"That's for being a jerk." She said while turning away from him only to trip by a branch. She looked behind her to see the number of her predators increased, she scrambled on the floor while letting out an _Eeek!_ And climbed on Laxus's lap, the man who was laughing so hard at what happened to her that he didn't notice that the girl he was laughing at was now on his lap.

Her predators stopped coming closer, she was smart, she knew they wouldn't come close to her if she was near Laxus, better yet sitting on his lap, so she stuck her tongue out at them while smirking "Ha! Now they wouldn't come near me, I'm safe here."

She didn't know she was thinking out loud, she didn't know that Laxus now realized that she was sitting on his lap, and she definitely didn't see his eyes darkening and the evil smile on his face, one that the other predators smirked at, so he leaned closer and whispered next to her ear "Are you Lucy~?" in a deep husky voice.

He saw and felt the shiver that ran along her body, her heartbeat quickened and her breath hitched. She oh so slowly turned to look at his face, the look of horror masked her own, for she was looking at a dark eyed Laxus who had the most evil smirk ever and it was directed at her only.

"Oh no…" she whispered.

"Oh yes." He answered.

And so the assault started again with Lucy running across the field trying to escape all her predators, and to make matters worse, everyone joined in against her, even Freed and Jellal and Mid, oh and Let's not forget Loke. Soon enough she was caught and tickled by all of them. Ten minutes later they let her go, she was breathing hard and panting, her hair stuck to her forehead from the sweat, but a smile was plastered on her face. She was sprawled out on the grass and soon everyone joined her, all gazing at the stars that seemed to shine brighter than ever, mirroring their master's happiness.

And on a far corner, hidden behind the shadows, stood a short man, with a smile on his face.

'Never in my life have I seen him openly laughing with others, mingling and talking casually. Just what did you do to my grandson Lucy?' thought the elderly man as he watched the scene unfold in front of him. Soon later he went back to camp.

"Did you find them Gramps?" asked a worried Natsu.

All of team Natsu were up as well as the guests.

"Yes, I did."

"Are they safe?" inquired Gray.

"Why don't you look for yourself?"

As he said that, a lacrima camera floated above them and showed the missing bunch tackling Lucy to the ground , at first they tensed, but then they saw they were tickling and then laying down next to her. After that they were relieved, seeing Lucy smile surely made them feel better, but then the guilt of what happened earlier came back full force. They knew they messed up, and specially Erza did. Even the guests felt a bit guilty about what they said, mainly Rogue, Sting and Yukino, as well as Kagura, she held high respect for Erza but even she knew that Erza was in the wrong. After that they all went back to sleep.

An hour later, the missing bunch came back to camp, Jellal was carrying Lucy as she fell asleep on the grass, and Freed carrying Evergreen as she had the same fate as Lucy, and then they all went to sleep after they put the girls in their tents, and Loke disappeared back to the spirit world.

Laxus laid wide awake in his tent, contemplating the events that occurred today, which left him in complete awe of Lucy, her demon form left him baffled.

He has never seen her demon form, and to say that he wasn't rock hard would be an understatement, she looked hot as fuck, her plump crimson red lips,her one piece showing all her delicious body curves. He growled, 'If I want to get any sleep I need to stop thinking about that' but try as he might, he never was able to get her out of his mind, especially her lightning scar on her thigh, after many tries to ease himself, he succeeded when he thought of what her brothers would do to him had they ever find out what he is thinking. Laxus didn't get much sleep that night.

Soon enough it was next morning and the last of the contestants stood before the master, meaning Gajeel, Cobra, Jellal and Lucy.

The master cleared his throat " So for today's final challenge, you four will race" they all looked surprised, really? Race? With that it? " you have to race to Tenrou Tree, climb it, bring the Fairy Tail flag on it, and be back here before the time runs out, which is two hours by the way. Oh, and there is a catch. Mira if you please." Mira walked to the master , in her hands were four bracelets, immediately the four didn't like this.

"Those four bracelets will keep you from using a certain something in your magic, now come forward Lucy." She did "you will not be able to call out on Corvus The Crow, thus resulting in the fact you can't travel through the shadows, and you won't be able to take off that bracelet until the time is over." He said as he clipped the bracelet around her wrist. The others came forward as well "Jellal you will not be able to use meteor, Cobra you will not be able to read anyone thoughts , and lastly Gajeel you will not be able to travel through your shadows, you can fight each other but do not forget about the timer, so if you want to fight or not is up to you. Now ready, set, GO!".

Quick as lightning, Lucy pulled out a silver key "Open gate of the Foal, Equuleus."the sound of a bell was heard as a black big magic circle appeared on the ground, black smoke arose from it. They could hear a horse's neigh coming from it, when the smoke cleared, there stood in front of them Equuleus. A large muscled black horse with red markings all over his neck and slightly to his back, with misty black mane and tail, two red eyes that had a slight red smoke coming from them,was staring at the blonde beauty.

"Hello Lucy-sama, how may I help you today?" he greeted her with a slight bow, she couldn't help but remember Capricorn whenever he did that, and giggled a bit at the thought of how much they are alike, "We need to reach the tree fast so can I ride on your back?" she asked him timidly.

"Of course" he turned and directed his gaze on the path "Hop on."

And she did, so they rode, after a wink and a yell 'Catch you later boys' to the three man who are still baffled by what happened. The three men, scratch that, the whole guild was. After they woke up from their stupor, Gajeel walked up to the master "Hey isn't that cheating?"

"Well no, because she is forbidden to use Corvus, and he is no Corvus. I would suggest you three get a move on if you don't want to hand the S-class title to her on a silver platter by just standing there."

And so the three of them ran like hell, completely forgetting each other, and only focusing on catching up to the blonde, who by now was not seen.

The whole guild was still silent after what they just seen, and Yukino was even more shocked, she couldn't believe how strong Lucy got, all the more motivation to up her game as well, maybe she could ask her to train her sometimes. But could she? Just yesterday she was thinking horribly of her, and now this?

On the lacrima camera, Lucy was seen riding Equuleus fast, the horse giving it his all, and just half an hour later, she reached the tree, where she dismissed the foal, and changed into her star dress:Taurus form, and with the extra strength, she climbed up the tree, she could hear the rest of the three males under her as she reached the half of it, she silently cursed and just when she saw a branch, she activated Fleuve d'etoile and wrapped it at the branch, and pulled herself up with a jump, she landed on the branch and looked down, Gajeel is using his iron to climb the tree faster, while Jellal is making little stars to climb on them that are making him faster, and well Cobra is just climbing normally.

'I need to finish this quickly' thought Lucy as she continued using her whip to go up higher, and when she reached the top which was a wide open area of wood, she took a breath and snatched the flag, turning around only to come face to face with Jellal and Gajeel, both behind her.

'How the hell did they caught up to me? Never mind, it seems I have to think fast.' "Brother, Gajeel, how may I help you?" she oh so innocently asked as she hid the flag behind her back, giving them a sweet smile.

"You can by handing me that flag Bunny Girl. Come on I don't want to do this the hard way."

"Oh really, because Gajeel if you wanted this flag, you're gonna have to come get it."

"Your choice Bunny Girl, but I won't go easy."

She smirked at him, her façade dropping "Neither will I."

Her whip lashed at his hand and threw him into another branch, the leaves started to flow down, and all could Gajeel plus Jellal hear was "Scorpio." And another "We are!" then a small sandstorm enveloped both of them, and soon later Cobra joined them, "What the hell happened here?" he asked looking around for a way out, Jellal quickly used his magic to stop the storm and there stood in front of them was Lucy holding the flag, still in her star dress Taurus form, starting to climb down the tree.

"And where do you think you are going Lu?"

She looked up when she heard her name, and quickly came back on her two feet "If it is a fight you want, then a fight you will get Lulu." After that the three men lunged themselves at the girl, with one hour remaining to get back to camp. She dodged but got hit a few times then called out Taurus to help her, she used her whip countless of times to stop them, but just as she succeeds in stopping one, another lands a punch on her before Taurus stops them, and soon she was panting, Taurus went back to the spirit world, and she knew they were going easy on her.

"So Lu" Jellal said as he approached her "You lost." He felt bad that he had to fight his sister, but he wanted this so much. The guild who was watching was left jaw open, ' what happened to the fierce girl that was intimidating yesterday?' thought Sting and Jura as they watched the screen. Midnight was watching the whole thing and a minute later, he burst out laughing, clutching his stomach as he was having trouble breathing.

"Midnight, why are you laughing?" asked Cana who was confused by his actions, this guy never smiles better yet to laugh.

"Just please watch, you'll understand." He said as he wiped the tears that fell from his eyes.

The three man stood proudly in front of the celestial spirit mage, then Jellal stepped up to her "Sorry Lu, gotta take this from you." He said as he snatched the flag from her hands, just then it started fading.

"What the-"

"Jellal what is happening?" asked a worried Cobra as he saw the flag disappear.

"Yo Blue, what the fuck?"

"I don't know, I really don't-" he was cut short by a small giggle that came from the girl just behind Lucy, "Sorry, Princess's orders." The little girl giggled more at the look of shock "Hello my name is Vulpecula, I use illusion magic."

And that's when it clicked in, the blonde used an illusion of the flag, but then why is she here? That question was soon answered when Lucy changed back into two playful spirits in front of them that chanted "Piri, Piri."

Jellal and Cobra looked at eachother, then down the tree where they saw Lucy off on Equeeleus, riding back to camp.

"LUCYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!" was heard all across the island as the blonde continued on her path, giggling all the way, 'Oh my brothers are so gonna be pissed at me.'

After fifteen minutes, with Equeeleus's speed, she reached the camp and crossed the finishing line. She was so glad that it was all over as she strode over to master and gave him the flag, the master couldn't form words at what he had seen, she's a pure genius. He was truly at a lost at what to say but managed to squeak out a "Congratulations?" the blonde only laughed and said thanks.

Soon enough, the guild woke up from their reverie, and went to congratulate the blonde, who kept it as formal as possible, until she reached the raijinshuu and Midnight, and practically threw herself at all of them, this was the best thing to ever happen after this month, and she was glad. Finally some things will go back to normal, like going on jobs, being on a team, although a different one but still, she is happy, for the first time, in a while.

XXX

After they got back, the guild, celebrated a lot, but Lucy kept distancing herself from the people who came to apologize. It's true that she forgives them, but she is only being on the defensive, she just can't handle what she handled this past month, yes she had her brothers and the raijinshuu and Laxus, but the others? None. None of them came to check on her, it felt as if she was a stranger to them, but nevertheless, she still faked a smile and accepted everyone's apology, they just have to realize she will not be the same as before.

The guest guilds left and only congratulated her, but there was a look of shame in the Sabertooth's members when they spoke to her, and she didn't know why, but she didn't press on it.

The week came and went, and Lucy was officially back as a working mage, in the raijinshuu, which was shocking to Team Natsu, who wanted her back on the team, she just declined, didn't give an explanation or anything, she doesn't owe them anything. All that happened between them, is still there, but there, not here, not now, and that's how she wanted it to be. She is really excited to take a mission with her new team, and that is what's going to happen today.

The busty blonde walked in the guild, holding a smile as bright as ever, as she skipped to her team's table, Jellal and Cobra are still not talking to her, at all. They are just being crybabies, but she is letting them, because for one, it's funny to see them glare at the beer mug as if they did that, it would hand them the S-class title, and two, they are her brothers, they won't leave her, not at all.

"Hey Bixy, Ever, Freed, babies, and Laxus! How are you doing today?" asked the blonde, her excitement rolling off of her in waves.

"Well someone is excited today. I wonder what's that about?" Bicks put his thumb under his chin and his pointer finger on his chin as if thinking, before he gave her the biggest grin ever "I know, because you are finally a part of the strongest team in Fairy tail, heck better yet, all of Fiore!" he finished with his arms wide and standing on his chair.

The blonde giggled, oh that sweet sound she makes whenever she is happy, excited, sneaky, and mischievous, was music to a certain Lightning dragon slayer, who had a smirk on his face watching the scene unfolding in front of him "Well let's go pick out one, we are gonna take a simple mission, not an S-class, to see how we work together, is that good Lucy?"

The blonde shuddered, but nodded, and saw the smirk on his face when he went past her. Ever since he called her her name when she was hunted a week ago, and sat on his lap, he never once called her Blondie again. Wanna know why? Because he lived for her reactions when he says her name, how she fidgets, shuffles her feet from side to side, blushes, mutters incoherent words. Oh yes, he lived for these, but he also knows that it will tire, so till then, he will keep doing this to her every single chance he got.

"We-well I believe th-that is good!" she said after a lot of effort, of course the raijinshuu already know why he is doing this, so they never stop him from teasing her, as well because they themselves love teasing her, she was just too adorable not to tease.

"Okay this one seems easy enough, take down a dark guild that is only made of five people, reward 300 000,it would take five days maximum since the guild members are non mages and it's in Oshibana, what do you guys think?"

"Sure Ever let's go."

They got the job accepted and left.

Four days later, at the guild.

The guild doors opened up, revealing four figures standing beside each other, the woman had her hair messed up, while the man with a visor on, had a little bandage on his forearm, the green haired man had his coat ripped, and the big broad hunk of a man, with blond hair, had the biggest scowl on his face, bags under his eyes, hair messed up and his shirt ripped up a bit.

The guild was speechless, what the hell happened to the Thunder God Tribe? And wait, aren't they missing a person?

A blue haired man approached them slowly "Laxus" he started calmly "Where is Lu?"

The man before him glared at the bluenette, before heaving a sigh, and addressed someone "You can come out now."

A bundle that was not visible moved from under his coat, up to his neck and climbed and sat on Laxus's head.

Silence, nothing but silence until "EHHHHHHHHHH? Bunny Girl became a bunny girl?"

The whole guild was shell shocked by this, for on Laxus's head, sat a bunny Lucy, that had two long bunny ears, white on the outside and pink on the inside, a cute rose bunny nose with whiskers, and a cute white bunny tail, she also had two small but sharp bunny teeth. She was half as tall as Happy, and well just too cute, wearing a small pink dress, held at the waist by a blue ribbon, her golden hair reached her tiny back right up her tail.

She looked at them, and tilted her head, scrunching up her nose to sniff the guild, and looked confused, but then got distracted by Laxus's hair and started pulling at it.

**It was a long chapter but I wanted it to end here, and ideas just kept popping everywhere and voila, 8000 words. The next chapter will be on Bunny Lucy! Stay tuned.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Hello and welcome back, hope you liked the previous chapter, and I really hope you like this one too, now on to… BUNNY LUCY!**

She looked at them from the top of Laxus's head, confused as to why it's so quiet, but one of Laxus's hair started to get in her way, so she focused on removing her hindrance, she clutched on it and pulled, successfully pulling the hair out, she felt him moving under her, he grabbed her by the collar of her dress and picked her up, leveling her with his eyesight, his eyes pierced through her.

"Did you just snatch a hair from my head?" he asked glaring at her.

She cowered underneath his scrutinizing gaze, wanting to make herself less small, until Evergreen smacked him with her fan.

"Laxus, you are scaring her, remember what happened last night when she got scared?" the fairy mage yelled at the dragon slayer.

"Oh believe me I'm the one who does!"

The two mages kept bickering back and forth until a bluenette came closer to them "Um sorry Laxus but what the hell happened to Lu?"

He heaved a heavy sigh before turning to the blue haired man and putting Bunny Lucy back on his head "I need a beer" was all he said as he made his way to the bar.

The bluenette turned from him to the other three "Can you explain why the hell is my sister a bunny?" he asked clenching his fist, he didn't like being left in the dark, and Mid plus Cobra were both out on a mission, and expected to be back today, he didn't go with them so that when Lucy returned from her mission, one of her brothers would be here to welcome her home, like she always did to them, but he didn't expect this outcome, not at all so he wants to find out what the hell happened.

"Follow me, it's a long story." Was what Evergreen said before turning to the bar, he followed her along with the others from the rainjinshuu and sat at the bar stools, the whole guild circled them to hear what happened to Lucy.

"So this is what happened…" started Evergreen

**One day earlier with the raijinshuu…**

They found out the location of their hideout, and were planing on how to attack them, yes the guild was not of mages, and it is an easy mission, so they hadn't put much thought into it, and went to the dark guild's location, this was a dark guild because it was famous for kidnapping and selling children and kids, so they needed to be stopped of course.

They were hiding in the bush when they saw the five men sitting next to each other smoking and playing cards, there was a kid's scream from the inside and one man got up to see what was going on, that's when they decided to attack, and they did.

They didn't expect them to have magic, the request specifically said they do not, so it was a shock to see them using magic. After they defeated the four outside, they seem to have completely forgot that there is still one, who was lurking behind the bushes waiting for a clear shot, and after a while, he had it, aimed directly at Evergreen's back, so he extended his hand in front of him and started to concentrate magic into his hand, and shot a ball of light towards her.

'One, two, three, four… wait weren't they five?' Lucy didn't have time to think more when she saw the ball coming towards Evergreen , so she ran and pushed Ever from in front of it and before she had the time to change into a star dress, the ball of light reached her, engulfed her in a bright white light, the others looked at her horrified specially Laxus, he was supposed to protect her.

Before she could tell them she was fine, an ear splitting scream spilled from her throat as the light that engulfed her turned brighter till diminishing slightly, and at last fading. When the light faded, they expected to see Lucy injured or something, not to not see her at all. She was gone, without a trace, her clothes on the grass where she stood, Ever had tears in her eyes and turned to hug Bickslow, while Freed went and patted the back of a broken hearted dragon slayer, who watched the girl he held dear die right in front of his eyes, his sadness soon turned into anger and as he went to hunt down the bastard, he saw a movement from under the clothes. Bickslow sent his babies to capture the fifth man and they did.

A little head poked out from under all these clothes, and looked at the four standing in front of it. She slowly climbed out from under the layers and rubbed her eyes to wake up as she felt sleepy, and yawned. Her little fluffy ears were a little dirty because of the grass so she started cleaning it up, and then hopped to where Ever was standing jaw slacked and looked up at her, sniffing her, then petting her head on her ankle.

Ever picked her up and they all came closer to see what the hell happened to her, she looked at them all and gave them a big bright smile with her bunny teeth showing. Evergreen quickly realized that the girl, well bunny wasn't wearing anything so she covered her up and went and picked up her keys, then they all went and took the reward, went and bought from a toy store a toy baby princess and dressed her in what she was wearing, by the time they got back to the inn it was 11:30 pm, they figured the best thing to do was go back to the guild and figure out how to revert her back.

The next morning ,when they were on the train, Bunny Lucy was sitting on Laxus's lap, for whatever reason she clinged to him, and he really hoped it was Lucy that did that not Bunny Lucy, but he couldn't shake her off, her eyes would become comically wide and they would water, she would start sniffling and hell would be welcoming for him for the shit he would go through to calm her down.

When the train jolted and started moving, Bunny Lucy got scared and started to freak out, Laxus tried to calm her down but she ended up tearing his shirt while struggling to get away so she hopped to Freed's lap who tried to catch her but she got away and at the same time tore into his coat, she hopped to Bicks's lap and clung to his hand, just as he was removing her she bit into his forearm and jumped to Evergreen's lap and climbed up to her hair where she as it seems took cover. After a while when she fell asleep, Ever took her from her hair and put her on Laxus's lap. He started petting her and she seemed to relax under his touch, Laxus thanked every living creature for the pills Wendy made for dragon slayer's motion sickness, for if it wasn't for this, he wouldn't have been able to handle all of this on the train.

"And that's what happened." Finished Ever and took a huge sip of the coffee that was laid out in front of her by Mira.

"So now what?" asked Jellal.

"Now Freed and Levy will search the books to see what they can find, the idiot mage who did this to her isn't talking, so I was thinking on sending the old man to take care of him, and we'll take care of her until we find something." Said Laxus rubbing his temple, he felt a headache coming soon and it was only 10 in the morning. Bunny Lucy was still on his head playing with his hair.

"Till then it would be better if Lucy kept a healthy regimen, meaning she only eats vegetables, we don't know how food could effect her body so it's better safe than sorry." Interjected Freed as he looked at the bunny on Laxus's head.

"I second that." A Levy merging from the crowd said, 'I promise you Lu-chan, I will do what I can to help you'.

And that's what they did, they all separated and went to do their jobs. Laxus went into his gramps's office and told him everything that happened, and also showed him Lucy, the master knew that it wasn't right, but he couldn't help himself to gush about how cute she looked.

XXX

"Drop it!"

She shook her head at him, while clutching the thing she had in her arms tighter.

"Drop. It!"

She again shook her head at him and when he reached to take it she tried biting his finger, he snapped his hand back "DAMN IT LUCY! DROP. THE. COOKIE. NOW!"

Her eyes grew big and watery while looking at him, the lightning dragon slayer sighed for the tenth time this morning. They were currently on the second floor, Laxus trying to take the cookie that Lucy found somewhere and came to show him what she found, after that she went for a bite when the dragon slayer yelled at her to not eat it, and that was what is happening at the moment.

"You have to be nice to her you know, so she'll listen to you." Came a voice from behind him.

"Well please Blue try your luck."

Jellal sighed and came closer to the table , he took a seat next to the dragon slayer and looked at Lucy in the eye "Lucy, that is not healthy, so let go of it." He spoke calmly.

Lucy looked at him quizzically, and then looked at the cookie, then back at him, then back at the cookie before she opened her mouth to take a bite.

"NO!"

She looked at him startled, the lightning dragon slayer was trying hard not to laugh, now that this wasn't happening to him, he found this situation quite comical.

"Don't eat it!" he waved his hands in front of him and shook his head no "You will hurt your tummy." He said rubbing his tummy.

She looked up at him weirdly and then dove in for a bite, before she even puts her teeth on it, Laxus snatched it away "NO means NO!" her eyes grew big and she started crying, her lips quivering.

"Look what you did Laxus, you made her cry." Jellal turned to him, glaring.

Laxus returned that glare "Oh and you were making progress with her, talking to her like a kid, she is a BUNNY not a CHILD."

The two started arguing, not noticing that Lucy stopped crying and was rubbing her tears away from her eyes. She looked up at them and saw they weren't giving her any attention, and Laxus was still holding the cookie. Fine if Laxus doesn't want to give her the cookie she will get something else to eat. With determination in her eyes, she sat up and hopped down the table, all the way to the railing, she sticked her head out of it looking for her target.

The guild doors opened and in walked four people with two flying cats, they all noticed that it seems as everyone in the guild is busy with something, so they decided to ask the barmaid what happened.

"Hey Mira."

The barmaid turned to them "Oh hey Erza, Natsu, Gray, Wendy, Happy, and Carla. How was your job?"

"It was good." Answered Gray "what happened here?"

"Oh… you guys weren't here this morning." She scratched her cheek "Well something happened to Lucy and we are trying to help her."

"What happened to her now?" the scarlet haired mage heaved a sigh, this girl always brings trouble, no matter where she went.

"Erza." The two dragon slayers growled at the same time, while the raven haired man glared at her.

She cleared her throat "Right, so I wish to order a strawberry cake please Mira, and the usual for the rest."

Her team couldn't believe her, she didn't even ask what happened to Lucy. They were furious at her and when Gray stepped up to talk, she looked at the barmaid "And if there is anything we can do to help just let us know."

They all relaxed, the she-demon gave her a smile, said "Will do" and gave them their orders, they all went to sit at their table and started discussing what happened at their mission. Lucy kept looking around until…

There. She found it, on a table waiting for her, calling for her to come and eat it, her eyes glowed with delight, she removed her head from between the two bars and hopped down the stairs. When she was down, she sniffed the air to be able to locate her target, found it! She hopped till she reached the table and climbed it.

Once on the table, she took in the sight in front of her, the people sitting on the table had wide eyes and mouth gaping. She looked to her left and saw a raven haired man staring at her, he was having a drink, to his left was a blue haired girl with a white exceed sitting on her lap and she was having a salad, she looked to her right and found a salmon haired man eating chicken wings and to his right a scarlet haired woman, who was eating… HER TARGET!

She hopped closely to the scarlet haired woman, all of them following her movements.

"Um what is she?" the raven haired man asked.

The salmon haired man took a sniff and his eyes widened, then he took more sniffs and answered "Lucy."

"WHAT?" they all looked at him, while Lucy was coming closer to her target, the sweet scent of strawberry was intoxicating her, she went to take a piece of the cake, the redhead watched her with wide eyes, she almost got it…

"LUCY!" she snatched her arms away and looked up at the lightning dragon slayer glaring down at her "What. Are. You. Doing?"

_Five minutes earlier_

"She isn't a child she is a goddamn bunny!" Laxus hissed at the man in front of him, who replied not even caring about the fact he is angering a dragon slayer "But you shouldn't be so hard on her, she is crying right now, see… where is she?" the bluenette looked at where she was supposed to be and then looked around, there was no sign of her.

The blonde slayer quickly took a sniff and went to the railing, he looked down and searched for her, there. He found her about to take a piece of Erza's cake, he didn't hesitate, he jumped from the second floor and landed in front of her.

_Now…_

She looked up at him and then around her, her eyes landed on the plate the blue haired girl was eating from, she hopped there, and took a piece of carrot from it, sat down and faced the lightning dragon slayer, her eyes held so much innocence, while she took a bite of the carrot. He heaved a sigh "Fine, eat that, I will be at the bar." He said and turned away going to the bar. From the corner of his eye, he saw her dropping the carrot and hopping to the cake reaching her hand out to grab a strawberry, he swiftly turned around, marched back to their table, and just before she could reach the fruit, he held her by the collar of her dress, she started kicking and punching his hand. He held her up and put her on his shoulder, where she climbed on his head and started pulling at his hair and punching his head, screeching from anger and letting out several 'hmph'.

"Yeah Yeah, punch the guy who is looking out for you." He said as he went to the bar, the four on the table couldn't keep it in, they burst out laughing, that was the funniest shit they have ever seen, even the redhead was giggling.

Once at the bar, the barmaid turned to get their order "A beer. And get her some carrots." He said grabbing Lucy and putting her on the bar counter, she turned her head away from him.

"What happened, why is Lu-bun sad?" asked the barmaid petting Lucy, while the latter leaned into her touch.

"Caught her trying to eat from Erza's cake, and she's mad about it. And Lu-bun, really?" the slayer deadpanned.

The barmaid giggled, and looked down at Lucy, completely ignoring the slayer in front of her, the bunny looked up at her "Don't worry honey, he is just trying to help you." Lucy just turned her head and hmphed, while the barmaid giggled again "Mavis, she is just too cute."

"Mira the beer."

"Oh right sorry, be right back." She snapped out of it and went to get him his beer. The slayer laid his head on the counter and closed his eyes, Lucy took that opportunity to look around the hall, but her head stopped at a corner in the far back, something shiny was on the table over there, she was in awe of it, and before she knew it, she was hopping her way there. She reached the table and climbed it up, her eyes fixed on the shiny thing in front of her, she hopped closer to it and sniffed it.

"Err, Gajeel?" Lily asked him as he was eyeing the bunny coming closer to the iron plate Gajeel was eating from.

"What is it Lily?" Gajeel had his hands behind his head, laying on his chair and his eyes closed.

"Lucy is trying to eat from your iron."

He snapped his eyes open and snatched the plate from in front of her "No! you cannot eat from it!" he growled at her, she cowered back and started sniffling, her ears deflated to her sides, she looked at him with big watery eyes.

"Nice going Gajeel, you even made a bunny cry." Lily said while approaching the bunny trying to comfort her.

"Shut it Lily!" he hissed and looked back at the bunny to see a tear rolling down her cheek "No, no, no, no don't cry, okay don't cry. Oi Lightning Freak." At that the water works began, Lucy started crying hard "Shit Lightning Freak stop ignoring me!"

"What the hell do you want Metal Head?" Laxus snarled at him.

"Come take your Bunny she is crying!" Gajeel shouted from the end of the guild.

"What…" Laxus looked around him and didn't see Lucy, just then Mira came back with his beer "Sorry Laxus we just ran out of carrots I'll send someone to bring some- wait where is Lucy?" she asked looking around her. Laxus all but leaped to where Gajeel was sitting, leaving a confused Mira behind him.

"What the hell happened?" he scooped Lucy in his arms trying to comfort her "What did you do?" he growled at the iron dragon slayer.

"Listen up Sparkplug, she wanted to eat my iron. Now I don't know about a rabbit's regime but I'm pretty sure iron is not on the fucking list." He snarled back at the blonde slayer.

Laxus looked at the blonde bunny in his arms who was still weeping "Apologize to her."

Gajeel chocked on his iron while Lily chuckled "Did you just say apologize?" he asked with wide eyes while Laxus nodded his head "I ain't apologizing to a damn rabbit!" he snapped at him while Lucy cried harder.

"Gajeel" a threatening rumble escaped his chest, he glared down at the iron dragon "You better say you are sorry now so she stops crying, or Levy will have to wonder why the hell she can't find her iron dragon slayer." The edge in his voice had Gajeel, BLACK STEEL GAJEEL, gulping down.

His eyes diverted back to the bunny who is still crying in Laxus's arms, he cleared his throat and called out to her "Bunny?"

She sniffled and looked up at him, her vision blurry from the tears, he looked at her and got nervous, how the hell does he do that? He cleared his throat once again "I'm sorry that I yelled at you." These two slayers didn't notice that the whole guild is looking at them, some even recording what is happening right now.

She gave him a calculating look, tilted her head, and stopped crying, she looked from him to his iron plate and back to him, Gajeel followed her gaze and then looked up at her, he heaved a sigh "I can't give you iron Bunny. You can't eat it." He said as calmly as possible. Only a few seconds passed before she broke down in tears again.

"DAMN IT GAJEEL!" Laxus roared at him.

"THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?!" Gajeel roared back.

Lucy shrunk back in Laxus, shivering from fear, their voices scared her, they were too loud. Laxus felt that she was shivering and looked down at her, her big eyes, her big brown eyes showed fear that his heart ached because of it, he drew a deep breath and walked away, tucking Lucy safely in his arms, and went up his office, closed the door behind him and sat on his chair, he placed Lucy on the desk in front of him.

She was still shaking and the fear in her eyes was still there, he placed his hands under his nose and his elbows on the desk, when he did that she took a step back.

"I'm sorry." He sighed, and closed his eyes, she tilted her head "I'm sorry that I yelled at you earlier, and I'm sorry that I made you scared." He slowly opened his eyes when he felt something soft on his forearm, he looked down and saw her caressing her head with his forearm and smiling gently at him. His eyes softened and he patted her head, she closed her eyes and basked in the comfort he offered.

"Well I am going to work on some paperwork, you can go have a nap on the couch."

She looked at the couch then back at him and shook her head no.

He looked at her quizzically "Well then what do you want to do?"

She hopped from the desk down on his lap, curled around herself and shut her eyes.

"Hey, I can't work…with you like that." He whispered the last bit when he realised she was already sleeping.

He heaved a heavy sigh ' well time to work.'

XXX

The guild doors flew open and in walked the famous team of sabertooth.

The barmaid went to greet them "Hey sabers how are you doing today?"

"We are doing quite alright Mira-san, may I ask where is Lucy-san?" asked Yukino.

The barmaid scratched her head "Well-"

"God damn it Lucy how many times do I have to tell you. MY HAIR IS NOT FOOD!". The office door flew open and out strode Laxus to the railing "Mira prepare some beer and a bowl of carrots."

He then went inside his office, the barmaid quickly went to prepare what he asked for, and the sabers followed her to the bar.

"Um Mira-san, what happened to Lucy-san?" inquired Rufus.

"Well you see, she got hit by a spell." Replied the barmaid.

"And…?" asked Minerva.

"And… she changed?" said Mira.

"Changed how-"

"Damn it Lucy stop pulling at my hair!" growled an angry lightning dragon slayer at the bunny that rested on top of his head. The sabers eyes were locked on the creature that was playing a tug of war with Laxus's hair.

"Umm…" Orga didn't know what to say.

The creature climbed down and sat on the bar stool, she looked at them then smiled and waved at them. Not knowing what to do, they waved back. Mira came back with the beer and the carrots, she laid them down on the bar and asked the sabers if they wanted anything, they all shook their head no and sat at the bar next to Laxus and Bunny Lucy.

Lucy took a carrot out of the bowl and turned to Rufus and stretched her arm out to him, he smiled at her and took the carrot from her hand, and thanked her. She then turned to Orga and took a carrot out of the bowl and looked at him. Now orga wasn't a carrot man, he simply didn't like the vegetable, so just when he was going to decline her offer, he heard a rumble coming from the big blonde slayer "Orga, for the sake of not hearing her wails, and you staying alive for now, take the fucking carrot!" he hissed at him, and Orga quickly complied. But what Laxus didn't know is that Lucy heard all he said, so she took one carrot and sat her back faced to him.

He looked at her then rubbed his temples "Great what now?"

Freed came up from behind him and asked "Did she eat anything today?"

Laxus looked at him from the corner of his eye and sighed "No she didn't."

"And you wonder why she wants to eat everything she sees in front of her! Seriously Laxus, we promised we will take care of her and now you are telling me she didn't eat anything the whole DAY?!" Freed was furious at what he discovered right now, and when he wanted to continue his rambling, one look at his boss stopped him from doing so.

Laxus was looking at the beer like it was his salvation, his last safe haven, his final choice. He then turned to Freed and said "Say, by accident… she drank a bit of alcohol, just a bit that will knock her out for a few hours, will that be bad for her?"

Freed looked at the man that he worships, the man that is known through all over the continent for his massive power, the man that is so defeated right now that he is planing on getting a bunny drunk. He was flabbergasted. Not only he, the guests as well were.

"Are you serious?" Laxus nodded.

Freed decided that enough was enough "Are you kidding me? You want to inebriate her while we are working on keeping her healthy and safe? How will we explain this to her brothers, who considering what happened this morning, are very likely to kill you and- oh wow!"

"What?" Laxus arched an eyebrow.

"Her glare promises pain Laxus." Freed cautiously said.

"Who's?" questioned Laxus, curious to know who might help him end this misery.

"Hers," he followed his line of vision to find out it leads to Lucy, and she is giving him the meanest glare he has ever seen, never in his life could he have imagined a creature so small can make an expression like that.

She looked at him then put her nose high in the air and shook her head with disdain, as if not approving his existence, then turned away from him and back to her carrot.

Laxus noticed a wooden tray next to him, he picked it up only to be stopped by Freed.

"What are you doing?" questioned the rune mage with a raised eyebrow.

"Only an accident." Replied the big dragon.

"Are you kidding me-"

_Thump!_

Laxus' eyes traveled to the carrot that was throw his way, and then his eyes shifted to his offender. The little Bunny in front of him had the nerve of hitting him with a carrot.

"Did this Bunny… just threw a carrot at me?" he asked calmly.

The Bunny was tapping her little foot impatiently, she had the meanest glare on her face, that was replicated by the angry dragon slayer. The atmosphere was so intense that even the sabers backed away from the two of them, until Freed intervened between the two of them.

"Okayyy Lucy how about a nap?"

Lucy nodded her head and went to take a nap.

"I'll be in my office." Growled the angry dragon slayer.

He went up his office and closed the door roughly, just then the rest of the trio walked in through the guild doors and saw the mess that was happening.

"Yo what happened?" questioned Cobra.

Freed turned to him "A long story, take a seat you both, this is gonna take some time."

_Half an hour later…_

"So you are telling me the bunny that is now playing with my hair is actually my sister who transformed into a bunny?" asked Midnight with Lucy on his head playing with his soft hair.

"Yes." Confirmed Freed.

"Where the hell is the lightning lizard?" whispered Cobra.

"Listen up he isn't in a good mood."

"The hell with that?! We trusted our sister with him, that idiot lightning fucker."

Freed tried to calm Cobra down but failed to catch the slayer who was going for the stairs, but a blue haired man did.

"Sit down he had enough for today." Ordered Jellal.

"Who did?"

"Laxus, our little sister was especially mean with him." Sighed the blue haired man.

**At the Alvarez kingdom.**

The emperor and the spriggan twelve were sitting and having a meeting, til a butler interrupted them "Heka-sama, the girl you had us follow and keep an eye on is in trouble."

The emperor stood up "What happened to her?"

"See for yourself my lord."

The butler brought in a lacrima vision and turned it on.

_Some time later…_

"HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHA, DID YOU SEE HOW SHE THREW THE FUCKING CARROT AT HIM!" cried Ajeel of laughter.

"She is so kawaii." Gushed Brandish.

August was stroking his beard while chuckling a bit "I have to say, it's been a while since I had a good laugh."

Irene just shook her head trying to contain her laughter. God Serena was laughing and the emperor… the emperor was on the floor from laughing so hard.

"My god, that girl hadn't changed even as a bunny."

"So Zeref-sama, this is the girl we are not supposed to touch?" asked Irene after she regained composure.

Zeref took his seat back, he hadn't laughed like that in a long time, and he even laughed in front of someone, his followers, he should feel ashamed, but he can't. because it felt good to laugh a bit "Yeah that is her."

"Why is she special?" asked August.

"She is the chosen one."

They all stopped what they were doing and turned to him, shocked.

"Ar-are you sure?" stuttered God Serena.

"Yes, I am."

They all looked at each other while the emperor only had his eyes on the lacrima, how he missed playing with her. He closed his eyes and leaned back, maybe it is foolish of him to think that, but she made him feel like a kid again, like he didn't have such burden on his shoulders, like he was free, even if it were only for moments.

**Back at the guild…**

"We are gonna close up soon."

"Okay thanks Mira."

The lightning dragon slayer picked up the little bunny that was sleeping on the bar and held her gently.

'if only you were this nice when you were awake!' he thought as he touched her ears.

He went home, as he passed the barrier he didn't notice that a small lacrima vision that was following them couldn't pass through, and then got turned off.

Once he reached his room, he tossed away his clothes and got on the bed, he was tired after the events of today, so he wanted to sleep and get his rest. The bunny was sleeping next to him, till she woke up and climbed on his chest and closed her eyes, thus drifting off to sleep.

"Didn't like sleeping next to me, prefer to sleep on me as it seems."

The slayer couldn't believe when no one accepted to take Lucy with them, claiming that she is used to him only and will panic if she was with someone else.

The slayer's eyes slowly began to close until he too drifted to sleep.

_The next morning, at the guild…_

"So what did you find out Gildarts?" asked the master.

"Well at first he was hesitant to speak but when we had a bit of alone time…" he grinned "He spoke the words like a damn river."

"Well what is it?" the master was urgent to know what will be the fate of his favourite brat.

"She will be fine, the spells wears off after 24 hours, so she should be changed back now. It's a good thing that he didn't catch her, he could have kept her the same."

"What do you mean?" inquired the old man.

"His magic, makes people cute little things, anyone would think that nothing is harmful with that, but on the contrary. He transforms them to cute little things by a spell that will last 24 hours, after that if he redid the spell, they would be stuck in this form, and then he would sell them. The man was kidnapping and enslaving children, then sell them to the highest bidder."

The master gaped at him, how can such cruel people exists?

_Meanwhile with Laxus…_

'UGH, why is there something heavy on my chest?'

His hand sought the thing only to grasp flesh.

The slayer opened his eyes wide and whispered "What the fuck?"

He looked down slowly and he was met face to face with a very naked sleeping Lucy.

"The gods must either hate me or love me."

The blonde stirred in his arms and slowly opened her eyes, looked up and saw Laxus staring at her, then down and saw that she was naked then up, and with a flushed face, she screamed "LAXUSSSSSS! YOU PERVERTTTT! LUCY KICK!".

**Author's note: hey guys been a while, sorry but things have been messed up with my life lately, so I won't be able to update how I want to. I'm trying my hardest though. I hope you have a good day/night.**


	14. Chapter 14

Laxus was rubbing his face when Lucy brought him an ice pack. He took it from her and pressed it on his head. The blonde fidgeted in front of him, to be fair she always woke up like this and what brought her to kick him was the fact that she was naked and in bed laying on top of him, so she only thought of the worse. But she didn't imagine he would take it this bad.

After she kicked him, she demanded to know what happened, and he filled her in after he finished his rant about bunnies and carrots. Then he gave her one of his black shirts and he got dressed in some pants and a shirt then sat sulking on his bed. And when she asked if she hurt him, he quickly snapped and said no. Now she was left wondering what she did wrong and how can she make up for what she did. She remembered everything she put him through and she felt ashamed by it, he helped her out all the time and she rewarded him with a good morning kick.

Laxus was sulking at the moment and he knew it, he was furious and knows why. A petite woman like Lucy literally threw him to another wall. All the muscles, the training, the workout did nothing against her infamous 'Lucy kick.' He was being a brat and he was okay with it, his ego was hurt so he had a good excuse for being one.

Lucy stood there while Laxus was still pressing the ice on his head. She moved slowly towards him and tapped him on the shoulder. He looked at her with hard eyes and it immediately made her shiver. Those eyes did something to ignite her on fire and she liked the feeling but the timing was way off. She blushed as he looked at her and she couldn't help but feel small in front of him.

She bowed deeply and apologized for the man, who sat stunned by her actions. Because for one, he should be the one apologizing because he was being a whiny baby, for two because by her position he got a good view of her cleavage.

When she got up, he quickly missed the view. He stood up before her, and if Lucy was feeling small from looking in his eyes, now she wished there was something she could crawl under. She hung out with him before, but this was the first time she felt self-conscious of the difference between the two of them. Laxus saw something flash in her eyes and then he saw the pink tint on her face, and he decided to mess with her, as a payback for the hell he went through because of her and the kick this morning.

"Do you know the hell I went through yesterday?" he crossed his arms in front of him while narrowing his eyes at her and Lucy gulped. Oh she remembered alright. The hair pulling, carrot throwing, and a vague memory of a cookie fight. She could only nod at his questions.

"And now I wake up and get a kick to my face as thanks?" he questioned her.

His eyes were doing wonders to her body and she needed to keep her dirty little mind in check if she wanted to get out of this alive.

"I'm sorry?" she squeaked.

He looked thoughtful at her for a moment and rubbed his chin "Hmm, sorry doesn't really cut it Bunny."

"Don't call me that." She snapped at him.

He smirked, a dangerous smirk worked its way on his face and Lucy found herself backing up till she hit a wall. He got close to her till he was right beside her ear, and trapped her with his arms.

"And why not? Weren't you technically a bunny just a couple of hours ago?" he asked, his voice deep and husky. Lucy shuddered under him, her body reactions were out of her control and her mind was not helping her at all.

"Yes I was."

"Then I have the right to call you that." Lucy decided not to argue with him because her mind was not forming fathomable words to say. His masculine scent, his hard muscles, his hot breath on her neck was driving her crazy and for all that is holy his length was pressing on her inner thigh.

He backed away from her and she immediately missed his warmth. "Well I guess I could eat, are you craving anything?" he said as he walked past her into his kitchen.

Lucy stood there stunned, her heart beating a thousand per minute. 'What the fuck was that just now?' she needed to remind herself to breathe before she passed out. She could live without another incident like the one this morning. And now, she could not believe how he just played her and left.

"Are you coming or not Bunny?" his voice rumbled from the kitchen, and Mavis knows she hates that nickname more than anything in life.

She met up with him in the kitchen, he had already prepared breakfast for them. She looked out the window and saw that it was pouring rain outside, she pouted as she thought that she wouldn't be able to go home in this weather. Until she thought of using Corvus to shadow jump her to her apartment that was till she remembered that her keys are not with her. Where are her keys anyway?

She looked back at Laxus who was eating his food like all is perfect in the world, and just a few minutes ago he was whining and sulking.

"Are you not going to eat?" he asked her as he eyed her from top to bottom. It wasn't until this day that Lucy found out that Laxus can be dangerous to be around. She quietly sat on her chair and ate her food.

"Um Laxus where are my keys?"

He looked up at her from his plate and answered her "Blueberry took them home last night."

She looked at him quizzically "Blueberry?"

Until it clicked in, and she burst out laughing, she looks at him and sees the mirth in his eyes "That is fucking genius, I am going to start calling him that from now on."

They continued eating and once they were done Lucy volunteered to do the dishes but Laxus didn't accept and told her to pick a movie for them to watch.

"Hey Laxus, what type do you fancy watching?"

He came behind her and held out a movie disk "This one is perfect."

"Oh really? What's its name and what's it about?"

"Its name is 'It' and it's about carnivals and candy and clowns."

She looked at him flabbergasted "Clowns, candy and carnivals? Laxus do you have a fever?"

He looked at her innocently "Whatever do you mean Blondie?"

His eyes screamed danger and Lucy knew it, but she decided to test her waters, a decision she will soon regret.

"Um, I don't know but it sounds kind of childish."

He smirked at her "Well if it is as childish as you deem, I dare you to watch it with me."

She mirrored his smirk with one of own "Bring it." It was just a children's movie, so it was no big deal.

He grinned "Whatever you say Blondie, but just so you know my arms are open if you wanted to seek comfort." He then went to prepare some popcorn.

Whatever the hell did he mean? It's just a kids movie, maybe there are some touching moments in it? That's why he gave her that offer? Well whatever the reason is, Lucy will not give in to his offer, she was sure she was not going to need it anyway.

XXX

She was dead ass wrong.

The movie was not about candy and carnival and clowns, well it was about a clown, but a clown that eats people, a clown that has a mouth that can open to the size of a door, and right now she was having second thoughts about his offer.

She looked at him from the corner of her eye, and he seemed as if he was watching a movie about two best friends retelling their story, and not a movie of a flesh-eating clown that is going around and terrorizing people.

She took a deep breath and let it out, she could do this, for she was not a little girl anymore. Lucy could handle this.

…

…

"Are you enjoying sitting on my lap Blondie?"

"Shut up you are the one who decided to watch this movie." She shot his a glare that he didn't notice because he was busy laughing.

"Blondie I am pretty sure it was you that called the movie childish." She sneaked a glance at him and immediately regretted it, the bastard was smirking with one of his eyebrows raised. He was looking at her with amusement flashing is his eyes.

"You are a sneaky bastard Laxus Dreyar. Tricking a girl to watch a horror movie so you could have her in your lap? Kind of a desperate move don't you think?" the mischief in her eyes lit a fire in his. His eyes bore into her soul as he continued smirking "Well Lucy Heartfilia" her breath hitched at the way he said her name, which he noticed "I do believe that the girl is the one who jumped on my lap, and I do remember you tricking yourself into this."

Time stilled as they both stared into each others eyes, until a scream from the lead girl brought them back from their reverie, and they both continued to watch the movie, with Lucy on Laxus' lap with his arms encircling her protectively. Occasionally, she would hide in his chest of some disgusting and horrifying scene.

The rain was still pouring hard, accompanied by lightning strikes, the sky raged on with its continuous rain and lightning. All that added beautifully to Laxus, this day was amazing to him, even though it began the wrong way, he found himself enjoying cornering the little bunny, and then tricking her into watching this movie, which he knew was horror, and now having her on his lap, in his arms was a huge win.

As the movie ended, he got up to turn off his lacrima-television. Lucy sat at the sofa thinking of ways to get back at him for what he did to her. Then a thought clicked in her head, and a devious smile appeared on the celestial mage's face. She looked to her corner and saw the vase of flowers, with the dirty water. She quietly took the flowers out of the vase and held on to it. She balanced herself on the sofa then when Laxus turned to see what the hell she was up to, she threw the water at his face and some even went in his eyes.

She looked at him innocently "Oops." with her hands clasped together.

He narrowed his eyes at her after he got the water out, his grin showing his sharp canines "Oops?"

She jumped off the couch and started running in the house, that dangerous glint she saw in his eyes, yelled at her to run, run like the little bunny she is. She chanced a glance behind her and she wish she hadn't, the hallway was dark except for two eyes that seemed to glow yellow, reminding her of Pennywise, heck Pennywise had nothing on Laxus like this, the feral grin on his face as he walked ever so slowly and the rumbling of lightning outside, she felt as if she was the prey for this dragon, and she didn't know how right she was with that thought.

She entered a room and shut the door behind her, she turned to lock it only to find that there wasn't any key. She looked around, the room was really vague except for a door leading to the outside, and she was faced with a hard choice, deal with a predator or get soaked? She obviously chose the latter, but she didn't know that she chose both, because as soon as she was out in the rain she looked back only to be pushed over by the very dragon she was running from.

She was panting hard, and looking at him, she saw he didn't even break a sweat in following her. The lightning cackled behind him and she saw how it's light shone on Laxus' face, it showed his glowing eyes, that up close seemed to dance with lightning swirling in them, the scar on his right eye seemed to look more rough than usual, and all Lucy wanted was trace her hand over it, but the heat in his eyes stopped her from looking everywhere but in them. Lucy swore she could have drown in them, in their glowing ethereal beauty, she didn't know that she was now cupping his face with one of her hands.

As for Laxus, as he looked at her, he thought he finally found what heaven was about, for she looked like an angel with her soaked hair splayed out on the grass, and her chess heaving from all the running, her brown eyes looking straight at him, and for a moment he saw her eyes drift to his scar but then her focus shifted to his eyes. Staring into her eyes and feeling her delicate hand on his cheek, he couldn't help himself.

He kissed her.

And she kissed back.

The kiss was everything he could have ever imagined and more. She tasted and smelled like strawberry and vanilla, and now with the rain falling on them like that, it turned the moment more intense, more beautiful than it already was. He picked her up, and while still kissing her got her back inside the house.

The moment he was inside his house, he pushed her to a wall and she jumped up and wrapped her legs around him. Lucy rationalized that they were moving too fast but the feel of his lips, his hard hands on her made her forget all logic and just let go, because it felt right.

When the need of air became important, they parted only for Laxus to continue his assault on her neck, and for her to struggle with removing his shirt. Getting the hint, he removed his shirt and let her hands roam on his chest, and Mavis did he love the feel of her touch. He continued kissing her neck and the moans that left her mouth was urging him to continue, and when she craned her neck giving her more access, he became the happiest man in the world.

He felt her up, and enjoyed how she shivered under his touch, he continued their kiss. When his hand reached her mound he gave it a little squeeze earning a gasp from the blonde, he took advantage of that and deepened their kiss, their tongues fought for dominance, with his easily overpowering hers. He could tell that she was not new to this, and he didn't know how to feel about that. He continued feeling her up, tracing his fingers down her arms, to her forearm, then her fingers where he grabbed her wrists and rubbed soothingly on the inside of them as he laid them on the wall on either side of her head.

All the while the blonde continued moaning inside his mouth, she was not new to this, but Mavis the boys she was with, hold nothing to this man here. As he kept trailing his fingers on her arm, he couldn't help but notice a strange thing. There was a small swell of her skin on her wrist, before he knew what he was doing, he stopped kissing her and looked at her wrist, and what he saw stopped him dead in his place.

Lucy, noticing he stopped, opened her eyes that were closed while she was kissing him, and looked at him. She saw his eyes fixed on something, so she followed his line of view, and her heart suddenly was in her throat. She tried pulling her hand but his grip became firmer on her wrist. She started panting, tears threatened to leak from the corner of her eyes, she didn't want him to find out, not like this. The dragon in front of her kept staring at the thin line on her wrist, his heart was beating frantically, his breathing was slow, and his eyes… showed so much emotions, Lucy couldn't keep up with them, but some were evident, like sadness, anger and … disappointment.

"Why?" his voice cracked, it was above a whisper and Lucy could barely hear him, but because she was close, she did and her heart shattered to a million pieces. His voice was raw with emotions, the tears that gathered at the corner of her eyes leaked down her face.

"Laxus please let go of me." She whispered to him, tugging her hand to let her go, but his grip only tightened to the point where it started to hurt her.

"Why?" he asked again, this time though, he looked at her and her tears flowed harder. His face screamed betrayal, and she didn't know how to respond to that question, for she herself didn't know the answer.

"I-I don't know…"

"You don't know?" he whispered "You don't know?!" this time he said it louder and punched the wall next to her, leaving a dent and cracks in it. Lucy flinched and shook from her sobs, she was terrified of many things, that he would tell her brothers, that he would tell the guild, but what terrified her more, was the look of disappointment in his eyes, the look of pure betrayal, and seeing this Lucy's heart clenched tight and with one final tug, she pushed the dragon slayer off of her and ran out of his house.

Running on the streets bear footed and in only a black shirt she took from Laxus' with her tears flowing freely, Lucy didn't mind. She just wanted to reach home where she can burry herself in her bed. She reached her apartment and opened it, then quickly shut the door behind her. She leaned on the door and was about to collapse when someone called out to her.

"Luce, what happened to you?"

She looked up and saw her former partner and best friend, she couldn't handle him at the moment so she covered her face with her bangs. A futile attempt in the presence of a dragon slayer.

"What do you want Natsu?" her voice was icy, and Natsu shivered at hearing it. He wanted to only apologize to his friend.

"I wanted to say I'm sorr-"

"Now is the not the time Natsu." She interrupted him as she got off the door and opened it "Leave."

He looked at her with wide eyes, she is sure upset about something but she doesn't want him to comfort her, like he always did whenever something bothered her. He felt as if she didn't need him anymore, not like before.

"But Luce-"

"Now is not the Fucking time Natsu. LEAVE!" she looked at him, and he saw it. The pain, regret, guilt, he saw those emotions swimming in her eyes and he reluctantly nodded and left. Lucy shut the door behind him and slid down it. She sobbed, cried, she could never be happy with someone. She most of all did not want Laxus to know what happened to her, but fate was cruel to her, for the minute she let her guard down, and let someone in, fate slapped her in the face.

A shimmer of light and a bell sound indicated the arrival of one of her spirits, and of course it was Loke. He held her in his arms, and took care of her weeping, drenched state.

"What happened Princess?" he asked her softly.

"He knows. Laxus knows." She said as her sobs intensified, he rocked her back and forth while rubbing her back. He furrowed his eyebrows "Knows what Princess?"

After a few sobs escaped her, she replied "About what I did the year th-the guild w-was disbanded."

His eyes grew wide at what she said, if that was the case, then he needed to speak with the lightning dragon slayer.

XXX

Laxus didn't know what to feel, the thought of the girl he has feelings for, trying to kill herself just paused him from thinking.

All he could do was look at where she was, with silent tears streaking down his face. He knew she suffered, and greatly, but to this extent. To the extent of choosing to end her life?! He felt the utmost betrayal and he didn't know why, his dragon roared in its cage, for it was feeling as if she was rejecting him, rejecting him from spending time with her by choosing to shorten her time on Earth Land.

Laxus didn't understand, at all why she would do what she did. And now, he maybe never will, for he acted about it the wrong way. He smelt her fear, and he only wishes that it was not directed at him, but he knew it was. He lost control of his dragon that it surfaced a bit. And he is pretty sure that her siblings don't know about what she did.

His dragon was taking this a lot personally, that he had a hard time figuring out why, and he figured it was time to have a training session with Gajeel again. Maybe the iron head will have some answers.

The next morning, Laxus got up and took a bath, all night long he couldn't sleep, the haunted look on Lucy's face kept him awake all night. He hurt her, badly. And he is regretting his actions a lot, he just couldn't control himself and snapped like he did, but that was no excuse.

Arriving at the guild, he saw that there are few people here, so he decided to head up to his office and wait for the iron head to come to the guild.

A couple hours passed by, and the guild was full, a lot of people were here, like Jellal and Cobra, Midnight and the Raijinshuu, and a lot more. The guild doors flew open and in walked a person they never thought they would see alone. The trio quickly rushed to his side to ask him about their little sister.

"Loke how is she doing? Did she turn back to normal?" the questions rushed out of the trio's mouths while Loke stood silent in front of them. Once they saw that he wasn't talking, they shut up and Jellal got close to Loke, worry evident in his eyes "Loke, how is Lu?"

The spirit just sighed "Meet at Laxus' office, I have a few things to tell you."

They quickly nodded not liking where this was going. Loke went to the Raijinshuu' table and once they saw him approach, they got alerted that something was wrong, for the cheerful blonde was not with him. He signaled to them with his head and they quickly got the hint and rushed to Laxus' office.

Once he entered the office, he met Laxus' gaze and immediately the slayer put his hands on his head. Freed worked on a spell to put a sound barrier around the room to prevent anyone outside this room from hearing them.

The spirit straightened his posture and prepared himself for it. He got the approval from Lucy to do so, because she couldn't face them while telling them, so he volunteered to go in her stead. The blonde saw that it was time to tell the people close to her the truth of what happened that year.

He looked at all of them and he didn't know how to start, even if he wasn't the one who did those stuff, it was still hard to talk about things like that, especially when it was still haunting him.

He cleared his throat before he started "When you all left, when the guild was disbanded, Lucy was left alone. The family she thought would never leave her abandoned her."

His gaze swept at their faces and he saw the mixture of pain and regret, but the more evident one was on Laxus'.

He continued "After breaking Aquarius' key, Lucy never summoned us, afraid that she would break a key if she only held it, and whenever I tried to open my gate, she would quickly force it closed." His voice started wavering "That was until that night." His eyes were downcast, his breathing turned rapid, he never wanted to live this nightmare again, but for her sake, he will continue to tell them the story.

"What night?" asked Cobra, already feeling that he won't like the answer to his question.

He looked at them "The night I found her laying in a pool of her own blood."

Gasps were heard all around the room, Evergreen already had tears flowing down her face, while the trio's face was unreadable, and Laxus looked like he was about to tear something off. Freed and Bickslow didn't want to go that way, maybe Lucy was out on a job and she got badly hurt. Yeah maybe that was what happened. Their hopes shattered as Loke continued

"That night, the most amazing woman I have ever met, my princess, my savior, the spirits light in the darkness, tried committing suicide."

The trio, were shocked, were angry, were heartbroken. They didn't know, that she was feeling like that, they all left her even though they knew who she was to them, they left her on her way, alone, even though she had someone who could lean on, they just never offered her the shoulder. How naïve could they be, when they knew the fact that she went in some problems, and some of it was caused by them, so how naïve could they be to think that she would be better off left alone.

"I quickly picked her up and took her to the spirit realm, where we healed her. Still, her look, will haunt me to the end of times." He said so while shaking slightly from the rage kept in him, he blamed himself for not being there sooner, for not seeing that she was not okay, even though she was closing his gate every time, he should have kept trying, not just sit around and give her space. Even when she tells him that it was not his fault, that it was all her fault she forget that she had a family as beautiful as hers was, he still didn't believe it. He was sure he was at fault.

The room was silent, the people in it were still trying to register what was being said to them. The trio were devastated, they keep disappointing her and she keeps forgiving them.

"Where is Lulu now?" Jellal croaked as he looked at the spirit.

"She's home sleeping. Please give her space for the day, and come see her tomorrow, and do not worry I will stay with her the whole day, like I did at night."

Laxus did not like that idea, and the growl that escaped him was a proof of that. The spirit glared at him "Oh sorry would you like to stay with her? Because I think you will be perfect for her now considering how you reacted last night when you found out." The spirit spat at him and Laxus returned the glare, but he didn't say anything, because Loke was right. Right now he won't be much help to her.

Midnight looked at him and asked "You knew?"

Laxus sighed as he rubbed his face with his hands "Just yesterday."

"How?" inquired Freed.

"I saw the scar on her wrist… and I asked her about it, not gently."

The horrified image on the blonde cutting herself and waiting for her blood to seep out of her filtered in their minds and they all shuddered at the thought. NO! Lucy is alive and that is what mattered. No matter what, the trio swore they would help her out.

"What do you mean not gently?" the glare Cobra shot him promised pain if he didn't chose his words carefully. Well he wouldn't need to do that because the lion spirit answered "By snapping and yelling at her, also punching the wall next to her and almost breaking her wrist. By the way lightning rod, her wrist is bruised up now, but she doesn't blame you, that girl is too forgiving for her own good." The last part he muttered to himself.

The Raijinshuu stared at Laxus in hurt and disappointment while the trio only glared, hatred, rage showed in their eyes and it was directed at the slayer sitting behind his desk.

Laxus clenched his fists, his knuckles turning white and he closed his eyes. He turned to them and opened them, they were the color of orange/yellow and streaks of lightning showed in them. With gritted teeth he told them "Well what the hell did you want me to do? I just found out the girl that I love tried killing herself damn it!"

Laxus, because he was angry, didn't realize what he just said, but the others heard him loud and clear, they had wide eyes for they noticed how his eyes changed, but Cobra understood what happened to him just now, his dragon was trying to take control. He sighed and hung his head in shame "I lost control of my dragon, and it just happened. I didn't mean it." At this the poison dragon slayer perked up "You felt betrayed." He concluded.

Laxus looked at him in bewilderment "How did you know?"

The poison dragon slayer heaved a sigh " She is your mate Laxus, and when you found out that she tried to…" he had a hard time saying it "He felt betrayed, he felt as if she preferred to be dead than to be with you. It was the same as I felt when my first mate rejected me."

After a very long time, Laxus understood what was happening to him. Lucy was his mate, that's why he felt inclined to protect her, to be always near her, to hear her laugh and see her smile. And now he might have messed up his shot at this for how he reacted, but Laxus wouldn't give up. He would try again and again until he got her back, because now that she became a big part of his life, he couldn't imagine what living without her could be. And to say he was surprised that Cobra had a mate before was an understatement, but he didn't press on it for it was clearly evident that Cobra did not want to talk about it.

After he was done, Loke walked out of the office and left to check on the blonde.

XXX

Lucy laid in bed, hugging her pillow close to her. The twins were sitting next to her happily chatting about some of their adventures in the spirit world, but she wasn't paying attention to them at all, she knew they were here to comfort her but to also keep an eye on her, she couldn't blame them though, she is known to make rash decisions.

"But then the spirit king was really mad." This got her interested.

"Yeah he then punished me and Mini, and we had to clean up the celestial storage."

"What for?" asked the blonde shyly.

The twins looked at her and smiled "Because we put a glitter bomb in his closet."

The blonde looked at them with wide eyes "You did?"

They nodded "We even got a picture of it, here look." They gave her a picture, and even though she was upset, even crying a few minutes ago, she couldn't help the giggle that escaped her, the look on the king's face with glitter all over it had her giggling uncontrollably.

"Gemi, Mini, if the king finds out that you told Lucy he is going to be mad."

They looked at the lion spirit who just walked in "But he isn't going to know is he?" Gemi asked and Mini continued "Because if you were wondering, Virgo is always up for some punishment."

Loke cursed under his breath, the threat was heard loud and clear, even though Virgo calls him big brother, he knows that her love for the twins is irreplaceable, and whatever they needed, she would do. So punishing him for ratting out the twins would be her pleasure.

The twins went back to their world and as soon as they did he heaved a heavy sigh "Those two will be the death of me." He said as he sat on her bed.

The blonde beside him giggled. He looked at her and smiled "How are you feeling today princess?"

Her smile faltered a bit "I'm fine now."

She looked at him and she didn't know how to form her question, she hated herself to put Loke in such a position, but she knew if she went to do that, she would back out of it.

Loke, sensing her discomfort, answered her unspoken question "They need time Princess, just like you do."

She nodded then looked at him "I'm so sorry Loke."

He looked at her confused "What for Princess?"

She took a deep breath "For always putting you in situations where you are not comfortable, for relying on you too much-"

"But Princess" he went to interrupt her but she held her hand up.

"I guess Loke, what I'm trying to say is sorry and thanks, thank you for always being here Loke. Mavis knows Loke I don't know what I'd do with my life if it weren't for you and the others."

Shock was written all over his face "This wasn't supposed to go this way." He whispered.

"What was?" Lucy didn't understand what he was talking about.

"I am the one who is supposed to be comforting you, not the other way."

The blonde just giggled at his outburst before she wrapped her hands around him and pulled him into a hug. The lion spirit melted in her hug and soon he wrapped his arms around her. After a while, he looked down and saw her sleeping, he smiled at her "Believe me Princess when I say on behalf of myself and the others, that we wouldn't have any purpose in our life if we hadn't met you." He kissed the top of her head as he laid her down on her bed gently, and held her hand as he whispered "Sleep well Princess."

**Okay, I decided to end it with a sweet moment, because I felt like the whole chapter was so emotional. I hope you liked it and the next chapter will be about the grand magic games.**


	15. Chapter 15

**Hello everyone, I am back. A lot of things happened, and it just kept me from writing, and now with being in quarantine, I find myself having a lot of time on my hands, so I thought why not?... anyway I hope you are keeping yourself safe. Enjoy!**

The grand magic games soon came and the master this time as well picked out two teams. He chose Lucy as one of the participants but she denied, she was still emotionally rattled to be battling, so they settled on making her a substitute for team B, which consisted of Gajeel, Mira, Laxus, Freed and Evergreen. Team A consisted of Natsu, Gray, Wendy, Erza, and Jellal with Bickslow as their substitute.

Through the time that passed since the last confrontation Lucy had, she rekindled her relationship with Gray, Wendy and Natsu, who she apologized to about her outburst, but she still kept them at arms length.

As for her brothers, they visited her every day, kept in touch with her and took her out many times on jobs and restaurants, they were trying to make it up to her while she always corrected them that what happened wasn't their fault, but they never have it.

The Raijinshuu were always by her side, Evergreen took her out shopping while Freed discussed his interests in books with her, as for Bickslow, he was training her on a few acrobatic moves.

And lastly, she hadn't said a word nor looked in the direction of the lightning dragon slayer, it was not because she felt that he was at fault, it was because she felt that she owed him a proper explanation about what happened, an explanation she could not give him at the moment, so she opted on avoiding him whenever he made a move her way. And this was killing him…

Ever since he found out that she was his mate, he couldn't keep himself away from her, the dragon in him wanted to mark her more than anything. Sometimes he would find himself walking towards her home at night so he could catch a glimpse of her, or take a whiff of her scent to calm the beast inside him. It reached the point where he had to beg his gramps to put her on his team, when he figured that she was going to participate in the GMG, but then she had to decline and accept to only be a substitute.

Arriving at Crocus, Lucy was walking on the streets with Wendy and Levy, who both kept glancing her way and this irked her to no end.

"Okay what the hell is going on? Why do you keep glancing my way?" asked Lucy feeling the irritation bubbling beneath her skin.

Both girls heaved a sigh, "Lu-chan we have noticed… some tension between you and Laxus."

Lucy looked taken aback by her answer, but she quickly composed herself and gave the girls a smile "Don't worry, everything is fine."

Levy seemed convinced by her answer while Wendy was still skeptical about the situation, for one because the smile Lucy gave seemed forced, and for two, because Laxus asked Wendy before they left to keep an eye on Lucy. Those reasons raised the alarm sirens in Wendy's head, but she put it at the back of her mind for now, she wanted to enjoy some time with Lucy.

"Hey Lu-chan?" Levy turned towards Lucy.

Lucy nodded her way to continue "Why did you refuse to participate in the GMG?"

Lucy almost tripped when she heard the question, Levy has become quite dangerous. She cleared her throat "I just thought with everything that happened, it's best if I don't participate."

Both girls seemed unsatisfied with the answer but they pushed her no further. They continued their walk through the streets and by night fall they returned to the inn after spending the whole day shopping, talking and having fun.

The master booked two rooms, one for team A and one for team B, which meant that she will be sharing a room with the person she's trying to avoid. She went in and it seemed like the whole guild was at the bar partying, she heaved a sigh of relief and went up to her room.

Upon opening the door, her eyes widened and her jaw almost hit the floor. Rose petals scattered on the floor leading to her bed, candles lit across the room and on her bed, the rose petals came together to form a heart with a letter that has her name on it and bouquet of roses were found in every corner. Lucy took measured steps towards her bed, she lifted the letter and opened it.

The letter was written with a beautiful handwriting with swirls going on every corner of the paper, and it read:

_To the most beautiful girl that has ever walked the earth, I am truly sorry for what happened between us, and I would really love to pick up where we left of._

_~D_

Lucy giggled while reading this letter, and she almost shed some tears, Laxus was trying his hardest to talk to her and she really enjoyed the attention he was basking her in.

So she made up her mind to go and talk to him, thank him for what he has done and ask for forgiveness for what she did to him. She didn't know when along the way she developed feelings for this man, and now that she is admitting that she does indeed harbor feelings for him, she felt relieved.

Coming downstairs, she spotted him at the bar counter drinking some beer, she put on the biggest smile on her face and walked towards him. She poked him on his shoulder and he turned to her, surprised that she in fact came to talk to him, he thought she was just going to pass by him.

"Um Laxus…" her cheeks tinted with the color red, and her smile grew even brighter, he looked at her and he seems as if he was transfixed in a trance "Thank you for the surprise."

He blinked. He did again, and again, then furrowed his eyebrows together, he was confused. He saw the way her smile dimed when he asked about what she was talking about.

"The roses in the room, the letter, the petals on the floor… it was not you?" Lucy looked at him hopeful that it was indeed him, when no recognition flashed on his face, her heart sank.

"I'm sorry Lucy but it was not me-" he was startled by the fear he saw in her eyes.

"Bu-but you signed it!" she took out the letter and showed him. He looked at the letter, it somewhat looked familiar but he couldn't pinpoint it. When he looked up to confirm that it was not him, the tears that started leaking from her eyes caught him off guard, and when he was about to ask her what is wrong, she took off running towards the stairs.

The people who noticed the crying blonde hurrying towards the stairs made way for her, they then turned to see the lightning dragon slayer hurrying behind her, then the trio and the rest of team B.

Just as they were about to ask about what was going on, they were pushed over by team Natsu who rushed up the stairs.

Once Lucy reached the room, everything was still the same. Laxus reached behind her and saw how the room was, and was utterly shocked. He doesn't know much about romance, but he knows that girls like this kind of gesture, so why was Lucy crying uncontrollably?

Once the others reached the room, they had the same reaction as Laxus, but once they saw Lucy, they were quickly on high alert. She seemed so far away with the distant look on her face, she then slowly turned towards Laxus and looked at him "Do you smell anything?"

He looked confused at her request, but when he tried to catch a scent and wasn't able to, he grew more confused.

"Lulu, what is going on?" Jellal approached Lucy carefully, but two words had him stop dead in his tracks. In fact, it made the trio tense up and Cobra to growl.

"He's back."

XXX

Somewhere far away, in a rundown building, a man was seen sitting on a chair that looked somewhat like a throne. Next to him, a servant was standing with his head hung low.

"Master, the roses were delivered as you requested with the letter."

The man snickered "Very well, I hope to see you soon Lucy Heartfilia."

The servant turned around and left. Once the door was closed, he went to the dungeons and walked in a cell.

"What the hell do you want now dipshit?" snarled the man chained to the wall, he was beaten down, barely breathing.

"Nothing at all." The servant replied while he was emptying a bottle into a needle. The man chained on the wall widened his eyes "No, I did what you asked of me, why are you doing this?"

The servant got close to him, and injected the needle in the man's arm while the man groaned.

"Because it was master's orders, Ivan Dreyar." The servant smirked as he watched Ivan wither in pain, the injection won't kill him, but it will inflict a great deal of pain.

He turned and walked out of the cell, up to the kitchen to start making lunch. He started imagining the time when the maiden of the stars comes here and claims the throne next to his master, he heard the rumors that claimed that she was fair, just and kind. He couldn't wait to meet her, to see the pain inflicted on her would cause him a great deal of pleasure.

XXX

Jellal was pacing the room while Cobra and Macbeth were hovering over their sister trying to calm her down for she appeared she was about to faint.

Jellal turned to his sister and looked at her red eyes and puffy lips "Are you sure it was him?"

She looked at him and then at the letter, she then took a sweep at the room. "I don't know, he normally didn't go to such length, he never really got me flowers, just some creepy notes left here and there, that's why I didn't think much of it when I saw the flowers."

Jellal sighed "so that means that it might not be him."

The blonde perked up, and started to look around. The others were still too bewildered to ask anything. The blonde flipped her bed over, she then went to her cabinet and opened her drawers. She let out a sigh of frustration and her fear was replaced by anger. She turned to the others and asked them to bring the master up to her room.

Evergreen went to call the master while the rest stayed in the room looking at Lucy searching for something but not knowing what it is.

The master soon came and once he stumbled upon the sight of the room, he held his breath in, as much as the rose petals were beautiful, the alert and fearful look on the blonde's face made him sure that this was not a beautiful moment.

"What is it my child?" he asked her gently as he came closer.

She turned his way and swallowed the lump forming in her throat "Master do you remember about what I told you happened to me in the one year that the guild disbanded?"

Those who knew that she tried committing suicide perked up at the mention of that, but one look from the trio convinced them it was something else.

The master looked around him, and then back at Lucy "This was him?" he asked her.

"I don't know… but he usually leaves a number around."

"A number?" inquired the master.

"Yes." Replied the blonde.

All that were in the room not knowing what they are talking about flipped.

"What the hell are you talking about? And why the hell are there so many flowers?" it was obvious Natsu was about to lose his cool, he finally got his best friend back and it will be hell on earth if he lost her again.

"Child, would you like to explain?"

The blonde heaved a sigh and sat down on her thrown mattress, "In the year that the guild disbanded, I worked with the press, and I also did a lot of modeling jobs with Jason, at that time I would always get cornered by some creep, but it never actually got further than that. Until, someone started breaking in my apartment and leaving behind creepy notes, like "I will get you", "You are mine" and so on. I talked with the security about the situation and asked my spirits to keep guard of the room. It stopped for a while but then the notes came back, more confusing than ever."

The listeners looked deep in thought, while five of them were on the verge of shredding whoever stalked Lucy, and those were the trio, Natsu and Laxus.

"How confusing?" asked Freed, he was trying to decipher if there was a pattern behind what he heard, anything that would be useful to note down.

"It became numbers."

They looked surprised, Freed stepped up and asked about which number.

"Well back then it was 450. But as the days went by, the numbers kept being subtracted by one."

"So the number is related to days." Noted Evergreen.

"It seems so." The master looked at the blonde girl beside him "But you haven't found a number now did you?"

Lucy looked up at the master "No I didn-" her eyes widened as she looked at the ceiling above the door, written in red ink and small front _"34"._

She pointed her finger to the number and the others followed her line of vision, they all gasped when they saw the number written in red.

Erza turned around and looked at Lucy, she looked at the girl she used to think of as her little sister and she knew she messed up a lot with what she did, wanting to forget what happened before she turned to the master and talked to him.

"We need to keep someone to guard her."

The master nodded, the blonde looked over at the scarlet and smiled, which the scarlet returned. Finally their friendship is mending back to how it was.

Freed still looked puzzled and he thought out loud "But what does the number mean? We figured it was the number of days, but till what?"

His question alerted the ones in the room, because they all wanted to know but they didn't dare to think about an answer.

"My child, did he leave you a letter?" the master asked as he looked at Lucy.

"He actually did Master, but it is so confusing." Replied the blonde.

"How so?"

"Well the letter is sweet, not creepy like the ones he used to leave behind. It also has beautiful handwriting, but a signature usually was never left behind. This time a signature was left behind, and it is very similar to yours Master." Explained the celestial maiden.

The master looked deep in thought and then he asked her to give him the letter. After reading it, rage bubbled within the master and it was evident on his face.

"Jiji, what is wrong?" Natsu stepped up but Laxus stopped him. Seeing the fury in both the Dreyar' eyes, he remained in his place.

"Jiji!" whispered Laxus.

"Hai." The master whispered back.

Laxus punched the wall near him, the Raijinshuu were quickly to come stand next to him to calm him down.

"Master if you could please explain what is happening." Freed tried to reason with the master, but Makarov was still too enraged to answer.

Finally he heaved a sigh and closed his eyes "Every Dreyar member has a unique signature, mine is a majuscule D with a swirl under it, Laxus' is a majuscule D with a swirl on top of it, and… Ivan' is a majuscule D in italic, just like the one on the letter."

The occupants of the room widened their eyes at the information they just received, and when Gray was about to speak, the master cut him to it.

"But… a few weeks ago, a report came in. Ivan Dreyar was kidnapped from prison."

Freed looked thoughtful at the master "Then that means…"

"That whoever is stalking Lulu…" Continued Jellal.

"Also has Ivan-san." Finished Wendy.

The master heaved another sigh and looked at the blonde girl, who stared at him with big brown eyes, Makarov then looked out the window.

"This has just turned a lot more complicated." He muttered.

**So I know this isn't a big chapter, but I thought it'd be more exciting to stop it here. I hope you enjoyed the chapter, stay safe and stay home. I purple you.**


	16. Chapter 16

**Hello hope you are having a good day…**

Lucy sat looking out the balcony of her room, the second day of the grand magic games was over but she couldn't think about it, she couldn't think about the games at all for her mind was always drifting to other things, Laxus, the numbers, the flowers and more.

These past couple of days Lucy was barely able to sleep, her mind did not rest a moment, she was trying hard to figure out who the hell her stalker is, but even after all the thinking and sleepless nights no one popped in her mind, it could be anyone, someone she knows or someone she doesn't.

Footsteps approached her from behind but she didn't react, she already knew who it was, "Laxus" she breathed out.

"You okay Blondie? You have been out here quite a while." He looked worriedly at her but she didn't even glance up at him.

"This is the only time I am alone these days so I'm just trying to collect my thoughts." She replied tiredly.

A bit of hurt was shown in his eyes but he shrugged it off "Okay then I will leave you to it."

She widened her eyes and turned around to face him "No I didn't mean it like that! Please stay I'm sorry." Smiling slightly, he got closer and put his arms on the railing.

"Beautiful night isn't it?" he asked looking at the stars that always seemed to shine brighter when Lucy is around.

She looked up at the starry night sky and sighed "It is." She then faced him "Laxus…?"

He met her brown eyes and tried hard to hide his blush, it was as if her eyes were requesting permission to something but he didn't know what it was, but what was shocking is that no matter what her request may be he knew he would comply with it willingly.

"Hmm…"

"I'm sorry, for everything…" she was ashamed by her actions in the past, by what she had done in the guild as a whole, she divided it, drove people apart and the worst of all, hurt people she most treasured.

He just looked at her confused "What are you apologizing for? I should be the one to do so not you, I'm the one who-"

She put her finger on his lips "Please just accept it and stop telling me I shouldn't apologize for anything, I don't know if you can't see that trouble seems to only follow me these days, it seems to like me very much." She whispered.

He merely chuckled and pushed her finger away before embracing her tightly, while Lucy stood blushing madly at what he was doing, she couldn't help but enjoy his warmth.

"You may tell me to not apologize, but I can't do that. You may also tell me to not cut you off on your apology and I won't when you are in the wrong, but now Lucy, you are not in the wrong at all. There is someone out there who wants to hurt you, so you shouldn't apologize about that. My reaction the other day was not of the like of gentleman and the distance that was put between us was needed, you shouldn't apologize about that. You protected your brothers from death, you shouldn't apologize to that." He could smell her tears and feel them on his shirt but he continued "Although that time when you threw a carrot at me, at that you should apologize." At that she giggled and looked up at him through his embrace "I was not in control of myself back then and it wasn't my fault you wouldn't let me eat neither Erza' cupcake nor Gajeel' iron."

He just tightened his hold on her "Is that so? So in the end it turned out to be my fault?" he smirked at her and Lucy was able to see the mirth in his eyes.

'What is he up to-'

She didn't have time to continue that thought, because Laxus was tickling the life out of her "Laxus stop! Stop!" she couldn't contain her giggles and laughter, and soon all those thoughts about her stalker disappeared for in that moment, Lucy felt at ease with her soul and was contempt with the company of the dragon slayer.

When he stopped, she looked at him smiling with red tinted cheeks and he couldn't resist her, he simply couldn't resist the beauty of her smile or her bright chocolate eyes, so he leaned closely to her face and she replicated his moves, and suddenly they were both kissing softly under a starry night sky…

Until Gajeel ruined the moment "Oi people are trying to sleep here, go make out somewhere else!"

They broke off and both turned their heads towards Gajeel' sleeping form, Laxus sighed and closed his eyes, he was going to kill that slayer tomorrow, ruining their moment ever so casually when the asshole knows who the hell Lucy is to Laxus. He looked down at her to see her smiling genuinely at him.

"So I guess goodnight…?" she giggled and he chuckled in response.

"Yeah, goodnight Blondie."

He went in and laid down on his bed, so did Lucy. Gajeel was secretly smiling, thinking about how he was going to rat them to the demon matchmaker first thing tomorrow morning.

It was two in the morning and Lucy was still not asleep, no matter how much she tried, her mind wouldn't quieten enough to enable her to sleep. Just then she heard a faint whisper of someone calling out her name, she got up with a start and walked slowly to the balcony. Peering over the edge she found no one but the whispers didn't stop, they urged her to jump off the balcony and follow a faint light leading into the woods.

Lucy, not feeling any harmful intent from the light, did as the whispers suggested and jumped off the balcony. Landing gracefully on the cobblestone, the blonde straightened up and began to follow the light, not realizing that she herself was being followed.

…

The forest was getting denser and denser, the blonde was barely able to see the night sky, but the light ahead illuminated her path so she wouldn't stumble. Just then, she reached a clearing with a beautiful lake with the moon and stars reflected in it. Lucy stood in awe at the view before her, she was so occupied with the scene before her that she didn't notice someone was sitting on a rock next to the lake.

"So you finally made it." The person whispered.

Startled, the blonde looked in the direction of the man, at first she couldn't see him, but then the moon shone on his black hair, hollow eyes and his signature robe… and she knew.

"Zeref…?" the blonde gasped.

Meanwhile, the one in the shadows had his eyes wide and mouth agape, for he was wondering, why the black wizard was waiting on the celestial maiden.

"Wha-"

"Come and sit down next to me, you are looking for answers in the wrong place little fairy." He looked at her and in that moment memories flooded her mind.

"_Zeref-sama, come look at this flower, it is so beautiful."_

…

"_Happy birthday little fairy."_

_The little blonde girl looked down to see a key, the very same one that she used to open the demon portal._

…

"_Zeref I don't understand, what was the key you have given her? She has been unconscious for three weeks now." Lucy, even though she was barely awake, heard her mother talking to the black wizard._

"_Do not worry Layla, it will be of great need in the future."_

…

The blonde, now with tears streaming on her cheeks, widened her eyes and ever so faintly, whispered "Zeref-nii?"

The man diverted his gaze from her to the stars "So you finally remember."

She slowly stepped towards him "What does this all mean? Why did you give me that key? Why can't I remember anything before I was seven?"

He sighed and patted the seat next to him which the blonde took hesitantly, he looked at her and it was then that he noticed how much his little fairy grew up.

"I gave you that key because I knew it would protect you, but in doing so it appears I put you in more danger than I anticipated."

She looked confused and was about to ask him something when he continued "The man who is after you, it's because of the key."

The blonde widened her eyes in shock while the man in the shadows was at this point fighting to stay in his place, he didn't know what to do, go back and inform the fairies, or stay and protect the blonde, he couldn't determine whether the man's intent was harmful or not.

"What do you mean?" she asked him after a long silence.

He took a deep breath and laid down on the rock, the blonde all the while watching his every move, in truth she herself didn't know how to feel about this man. The man who almost killed them on Tenrou Island is the same man who she used to call Zeref-nii when she was a kid.

"Do you know who the demon is?"

She shook her head no and he continued "She is the queen of the underworld, that's why she is able to use the powers of the nine demon gates of Tartaros."

"But I still don't understand what all of it means." She exhaled frustratingly.

"For someone who used to be on team Natsu your patience is really thin."

She blushed from embarrassment and nodded at him to continue.

"I guess I will start from the beginning." He crossed his legs and turned to look at her.

"When your mother helped me with something, I wanted to return the favor but also keep you safe, hence the key. It was of the underworld queen Lucilia, she was to be assassinated but fled on her last breath. I found her dying and locked her in the key then gave this key to you. At first, I was to stay and teach you how to control the demon, neither your mother nor I ever thought that the key would merge with you. After it did, you grew immediately tired and passed out. You were in a coma for three weeks when you finally woke up, but when you did, you weren't you. You had horns, your eyes were black and your hands were beginning to shift into claws. That's when I knew that the demon was trying to take over your body, and the light in you back then was doing nothing to prevent it, it was weak after all, so your mother begged me to do something about it, but back then I didn't agree, I had selfish reasons to prevent me from doing so. Your mother was infuriated and sought out help from another."

He saw her about to ask a question so he raised his hand and said firmly "No questions till I'm done." She quickly shut her mouth and pouted a bit.

After all this time, she stills acts like she used to back then, Zeref gave a serene small smile after reminiscing about the past, he cleared his throat and continued "The other mage, he sealed her powers but in doing so, he also sealed all the memories you had before obtaining her key, when you woke up you barely remembered your name. Your parents were heartbroken and it was also around the time your mother got sick, so your father had to deal with a dying wife and an amnesiac girl."

"After that I left, your parents didn't want me anywhere near you, and I too didn't want to. But it appears that now that you are older, something made the seal crack, but not break completely. Now that is all, I assume you have many questions, ask away."

The blonde was listening attentively all this while to his explanation, and she thought that she would feel better after listening to it, but it just left her lost. Also a lot didn't make any sense, like if Zeref stayed to help her why didn't he.

"Why didn't you help me back then?"

He heaved a heavy sigh and shook his head while chuckling "I knew you would ask that the minute I was done." He closed his eyes and held an amused smile on his face "It all has to do with my wish."

"Wish?" the blonde inquired quizzically.

"Hmm, do you have any idea why I created END?"

She looked taken aback at the mention of that demon, after all it brought back memories of the man who kidnapped her only to use her as leverage. She shook her head no.

"I created all these demons, not only END, for one reason and one reason only, to kill me."

Realization hit Lucy like a truck "So you wanted to add another demon into the mix?"

He nodded "Yes I did, after all she is also my creation."

Lucy looked at him alarmingly "What do you mean?"

He snickered "No need to be so frightened or even surprised about it, after all these demons are ones I created. She was one of the firsts, but she found out a way to detach herself from her book, and in the end went on to live with her lover, but some of my followers didn't like the fact that she abandoned her role, so they planned to kill her, which obviously didn't go as planned."

"So why help her? Why trap her in a key and how were you able to do so anyway?"

"You do remember that your mother is a celestial spirit mage?" she rolled her eyes at his sarcasm "Well she had an empty key, like the one you have at the moment."

"How-"

"You shouldn't even ask me that, of course I know everything going on with you."

"You had me followed?" she glared at him to show that she is angry, which was a futile attempt because in Zeref' eyes she still looked cute.

"Sometimes. I have other means too."

He got off the rock and dusted his clothes "Now little fairy, I need to go. Our paths will cross again but not like you expect, so be ready."

"Wait!" he stopped lifting his arm and looked at her "I still have questions, like why do I remember bits and fragments of an event but not all of it? And also-"

"That's because the seal is still there, I guess I can help you with that." He directed his hand towards Lucy and a beam of black orbs shot from his hand towards her head.

The blonde screamed from pain, she felt as though her head was being cracked in half, she looked to see a blurry image of the black wizard before her, she saw him kneeling beside her, she didn't notice till now that she is on the grass.

He slowly got close to her ear and whispered "Everything will be alright, I hope the next time we meet, you fill your other half's purpose." He then kissed her forehead and disappeared.

The man in the shadows didn't know what to do, does he tell his teammates, the fairies, does he keep quiet… the blonde's wails snapped him from his thoughts and in a second he was next to her.

"Hold on Lucy-san, I will take you back to the inn."

Lucy felt someone carrying her, the small tingle of the wind on her back indicated that whoever was holding her was running. She slowly opened her eyes only to see a guild mark, a familiar one, and one that is very close with Fairy Tail.

'Oh no! Sabertooth.' She looked up and saw dark hair swaying in the wind then immediately knew who it was.

"Rogue-san…?" she coughed out, she was still in immense pain.

He looked down at her "Don't worry Lucy-san, we are getting closer to the inn."

She shot up in his arms "No please no!" she immediately regretted her actions when an immeasurable pain shot through her side, it seemed like her whole body was aching.

"What do you mean, you need help!" he gritted his teeth, he could already see where this is going "If you are worried that I will tell them about what happened, I won't, I promise."

The blonde widened her eyes "You were there?"

He heaved a sigh and looked apologetically at the blonde "I know it wasn't right, but I saw you alone and followed you because you looked like you were in a trance. I thought you were in danger and when I saw Zeref, I guess I made the right choice after all."

Lucy couldn't be mad at him but there was another issue "I believe you when you say that you aren't going to tell anyone, but what will I tell them?"

He widened his eyes a bit, it was true, if he were to get her back to the inn they would ask questions that he doesn't have the answers to, and also some that he promised the blonde not to tell. At that he made up his mind to take her somewhere else.

"Don't worry about it Lucy-san, I have it covered."

With that Lucy fell unconscious, she couldn't fight the pain anymore.

XXX

Arriving at the inn Sabertooth are staying in, Rogue sneakily went to the back and whispered "Sting, go to our room and open the window."

He waited five minutes before he heard a click and looked up to see the window opening.

And soon enough Sting's head popped out of the window "Yo Rogue the hell do you wan- wait what is Blondie doing with you?"

"Just help me get in the room." He hissed at his twin, he didn't have time for games now.

"Well why not use the door like a fucking normal person does?" he growled back.

"Are you that daft? Clearly I didn't use the door because I didn't want to be seen."

The light dragon slayer looked deep in thought then nodded his head "Fair enough, but how the hell am I supposed to get you up? And what the hell happened to Blondie?" he yelled in frustration.

"Keep you fucking voice down, and use the fucking sheets to make a rope." Rogue whisper yelled at his twin, he was getting on his last nerve.

"Yo master, what's up with you? Why you yelling out the window?" Orga came in looking pissed off at Sting, he was enjoying a nice poker game when his lady ordered him to check on the master.

"Honestly, if you do stuff like that people will never take you seriously." Interjected Rufus.

"Shut up you two and help me." He grumbled at them.

"Help you with what? Wait what are you doing?" Rufus asked once he saw the master of the guild assemble sheets and tie them together.

"I'm making a rope." He said ever so seriously.

"We can see that… clearly. Honestly your childlike antics will never change will they?" Rufus huffed disappointingly.

"Sting, what's taking you so long?" Rogue shouted in a low whisper, but the three in the room heard him perfectly.

"Well I'm trying but these two morons won't help me! And also they are criticizing my character saying it is childlike!"

The shadow dragon slayer shrugged his shoulders "Well can't argue with that one, but hurry up will you."

Rufus and Orga looked at each other confusingly and then both asked at the same time "What is going on here?"

The light slayer turned to them while tying the last sheet "Hopefully we'll find out soon." He then threw the sheet rope from the window and held on tightly to one end "You can go Rogue."

Rogue laid Lucy's weight on his right arm and held the rope in his left arm, then with all his might he climbed up and jumped into the room still holding the unconscious girl in his arms.

The other three looked shocked at the state the blonde was in, then Sting diverted his gaze from the blonde to his twin "Rogue, you got some explaining to do."

**I hope you enjoy the chapter…**


	17. Chapter 17

…

Lucy woke up in an unfamiliar room, she shot out from the bed in fear but quickly groaned as she felt an immense pain seep through her head. She looked around her taking in the unfamiliar room, she did notice that it was similar to their hotel room, so she summarized that she is in one.

An item on a cabinet drew her attention as she slowly got up from bed, looking out the window she had noticed that the sun is slowly peaking on the horizon. Coming closer to the object she held it in her hand and inspected it, it was the exact same thing that one of her brothers owned, but she knew that this wasn't her brother's room, in fact she remembered him stating that it was missing.

Footsteps approached the door and Lucy quickly hid the item behind her back. The door slowly opened revealing Rogue behind it, "Lucy-san, glad you are awake…" he gave her a tight smile, the blonde could notice that he was tired, the bags under his eyes were evidence enough, and before long she heard commotion from downstairs and a thud as footsteps rushed towards the room she was in.

"Well good morning Blondie, mind telling me why my dear partner found you passed out in the forest while he was taking a walk?" grinned Sting at the blonde who looked at him bewildered.

The blonde averted her eyes to his partner only for him to not meet her eyes 'At least he didn't tell anyone about what happened.' The blonde thought as she turned her attention back on the master of Sabertooth "Well _Blondie_ good morning to you too and I was as well taking a stroll."

He rolled his eyes at the nickname she gave him "In the forest?"

"It's the best place to gaze at the stars." She replied instantly because it was true, to Lucy the forest is the best place to stargaze. The feeling of the grass as she lays on it, the twinkle in the stars that seemed to shine brighter in a clear sky, the sound of crickets and animals as they scurry around back at their dens and homes, it is all so calming.

She cleared her throat as she felt the weight of the intense stare that the light dragon slayer was directing her way "Blondie you do know that I can smell that you are lying, not to mention that you have a dark smell on you, sort of like death but it's clear it's not yours… so you wanna continue this game or you wanna speak the truth?" the slayer finished with one eyebrow raised.

Lucy felt the heat run through her whole body and settle on her cheeks, but she still felt the sting of it as she started to sweat a bit, she couldn't tell them the truth, well Rogue already knows but Sting doesn't, and Stars what would her brothers, team and former team do if they found out?!

Suddenly the blonde started to feel that it was getting harder to breathe, the room started to spin and it was like invisible hands were clutching her throat keeping her from opening her mouth or even breathe.

"Blondie!"

"Lucy-san!"

She kept hearing them but the sound started to fade a bit, she could feel someone shaking her but she didn't process who, she didn't care to anyways as scenarios kept playing in her mind, of her brothers knowing that the demon was in fact a gift from the black wizard, of them finding out that she was close to him when she was young, of the fact that he paid her a visit and she didn't warn them. Oh they would be mad and probably worse, they could leave her because she was affiliated with Zeref, because she held inside of her one of his creations, because she thought of him as her brother when she was a kid. She knew that those scenarios were never going to happen, but alas the mind is not so merciful for it continued its ruthless attack on the blonde.

Unconsciously she clutched at what was in her hand, and it was all it took to snap her to reality. She opened her eyes that she never knew she even closed in the first place only to stare into concerned red ones, it was then she noticed it, the other pair of the object in her hand dangling from Rogue's ear, her eyes slowly widen as realization started to hit her.

"Lucy-san?" Rogue asked as the blonde continued to stare at him, he was about to question him again when the unthinkable happened and he found himself on the ground with the blonde on him crushing him in a hug.

"What the fuck?" Sting was shocked at the turn of events and he could only wonder what the fuck happened to the girl.

"Oh my god I cannot believe it!" the blonde squealed as she untangled herself from the hug to look at a flustered Rogue, she dangled the skull earing in her hand in front of him, his eyes slowly started to widen as he started to understand what was happening, hell even Sting understood as he could see from the corner of his eye his partner held a smirk on his face.

"You are him aren't you?" the blonde questioned as she looked excitedly at him, completely forgetting that she was still straddling the poor slayer.

"You are Mid-nii's mysterious boyfriend aren't you? Those are his earrings that he claimed were lost a while ago." The blonde questioned once again with her eyes shining with happiness.

He could hear the snicker his partner let out, and he could feel the heat that crept up on his face from the blonde's brutal confrontation about the situation. He looked back at the blonde and heaved a sigh of relief glad to see that she seemed alright, the fact is that how he came upon her last night was no accident, his boyfriend told him to keep an eye on the blonde and went to explain what happened to her with the room and all. So of course because he cares for his lover and his family he obliged and kept his shadows as guards on the blonde, so when one of them alerted him about what's happening he followed her and the rest is already known.

"Well…?" the blonde was still waiting for his answer which seemed to take forever.

"That's… true!" he and Sting quickly shut their ears to protect them from the ear splitting squeal the blonde just let out.

"Mavis! Now I know and he can stop teasing me about it!" the blonde was more than overjoyed to finally find out who the mystery man was, but also because now her brother can stop teasing her about it.

"Lucy-san, I am happy that you know but we need to talk seriously now…" from the formal address Sting used on her she knew he was serious, she turned to start talking but noise from downstairs stopped her.

"WHERE THE FUCK IS LU/LULU?"

Sting heaved a sigh and massaged his temple, he saw the blonde shrink back from her brothers booming voice, he sighed once again as he stood up and was about to open the door when it flew open and in tumbled her brothers, the Raijinshuu and team Natsu.

The minute Midnight saw her straddling his boyfriend he knew something was up, and when he saw a pair of the skull earing he once had dangling from his sister's hand and the playful smirk on her face he knew she found out, he exhaled a breath of relief to see his sister unharmed, but he knew he was going to get bombarded with questions later, so he started preparing himself mentally for when that time comes.

Cobra, Natsu, Wendy and especially Laxus were livid on the other hand, not because of the position they found Lucy in, almost all the slayers knew of the relationship between the emo freaks of the two guilds, but what disturbed them was the smell of the blonde, she smelled of death a scent Natsu thought and felt it was familiar, it was as if the smell was strangling them and they hated it with every fiber of their being, but then a question arose… why did Lucy smell like that?

"Lu." Jellal breathed in before chuckling at the victorious smirk that adorned his sister's face.

The blonde got up from Rogue as she kept dangling the earing in her hand "Well, well, well, it looks like the cat is out of the bag now."

"Not quite." Cobra interjected, the blonde looked at him quizzically "What do you mean?"

"Wanna tell us why you smell like death?" asked Natsu while furrowing his brows, trying to remember where he smelt that scent before.

The blonde widened her eyes before closing them, she put mental walls around her brain so that Cobra doesn't listen in on what the hell is going on in her mind. She blew a tiring breath before she opened her eyes and looked determinedly at them, she decided she was not going to run away from the situation, she will tell them the truth and no matter the answer, she will have to accept it and live with it.

"Alright, but not here, somewhere safe."

They all nodded and watched as Sting got up "If you want you can use my room, it's private and sound proof, you could also cast a spell to be more cautious about it."

They nodded once again and left the room with Lucy hot on their tail, she looked back and saw that both Sting and Rogue were still sitting in the room "What are you two doing? Come on, let's go."

Rogue looked up at her bewildered "But-"

"No buts, you guys are family, so come, also Rogue you know everything and Sting as a master deserves to know why he took care of an injured idiot that was not from his guild."

They both smiled warmly at the blonde as they got up and followed her. Arriving at Sting's room, they quickly shut the door and Freed wrote runes on it that stated that no one outside will hear what's going on in the room.

The room was vast, a queen sized bed in the middle of the room with a beige sofa on the side as well a Tv-lacrima before it. Light brown carpets with off-white walls, a large wooden wardrobe and a door to the right of the bed that led to a private bathroom.

Laxus gazed at the room and then turned around to face Sting "Life as a guild master is treating you nice eh?"

The Sabertooth master grinned at the man and nodded.

"Alright then settle down, it's going to be a long ass explanation." The blonde said as they all directed their attention towards her, they all made themselves comfortable, some sat on the floor while others leaned on the wall as the blonde sat on the bed. She told them everything that happened, from the whispers, the light, Zeref, what he told her, the seal on her memories, she opened up about everything that has happened that night and now as she was done, she waited for their reaction.

"Wow…" was all Jellal could say. He didn't know how to react to all of this, and he wasn't the only one, all the occupants of the room didn't know how to deal with this but at least now Natsu figured out why you smell familiar.

"So he knows who is targeting you?" Freed asked and the blonde nodded.

"Why did he show up now?" questioned Ever as she looked at you for an answer.

"I don't know, he said something about looking for answers in the wrong place so I guess maybe to clear up the issue, but what worries me is what he said to me last, the fact that the next time I am going to meet him will not be the same, it will be different, and he also whispered to me that he hopes I can carry on the demon's purpose, which is to kill him, so…"

"So that means that the next time you two will meet will be on a battlefield." Continued Freed.

The blonde exhaled a frustrated breath and nodded, Laxus looked at his troubled mate and then at his team, there was something that bothered him plenty, and that was that if the black wizard knew who the man targeting the blonde was why didn't he tell her, luckily he didn't have to ask because the redhead already beat him to it.

"If he didn't tell you who is targeting you then it must mean that we already know who, because what other reason than him wanting us to figure it out." Erza pointed out but Jellal shook his head "Not necessarily, he could be just playing a game. But we do know that he is after her key, so it must have something to do with it."

The blonde widened her eyes "That's it!"

All of them turned their eyes towards the blonde "It's all about the demon, so that must mean it's someone who wants the demon, and it could very well be her lover, the man simply wants his loved one back."

Freed widened his eyes "That is a good theory that answers the question of why he is going after you, but if that is the case, then who is her lover? Is he still alive?"

They all stood silent a bit but a growl that came from Natsu's stomach disrupted said silence as they all looked at him, he smiled sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head "Sorry haven't eaten anything since this morning, and all this thinking is making me hungry."

The ice make mage beside him sighed as he punched him on his head "Oi Flamebrain, you weren't doing any of the thinking idiot!"

Natsu bumped his rival's head "HAH?! You wanna go Ice prick?!"

The blonde giggled at her friends antics as the others shook their heads, the redhead was about to interfere when another growl erupted and this time they turned their heads towards the blonde who was blushing profusely "I- I can use some food too…" she stammered as she tried to hide her blush with her hands, the rest chuckled and agreed on a little break.

They all filed out of the room leaving behind Lucy and Laxus, the blonde looked at the taller blonde only to see him smirking at her.

"Nice monster you got there."

"Shut up!" Lucy punched him on the shoulder as her blush intensified, he chuckled at her reactions that he deemed as cute.

"So you finally found out about the Emo freaks?" Laxus questioned as he saw the blonde widen her eyes.

"You knew?!"

He nodded "Yup, all slayers did."

Her eyes seem to widen further and he continued "Their smell, it changes when a mate is marked by his or hers respectful slayer, plus there is the evident mark but your brother hides his neck so that's why you never saw it probably."

"Wow, that's amazing, Cobra told me some stuff about mates and how they are the other half of the slayer and how they get overprotective over their mate, tend to always want to be close to them, and always want to smell their scent…" she drifted off in the end and Laxus could see that she is deep in thought, as she put her thumb under her chin and her forefinger on it.

"Now that I think about it, it's kinda exactly what you've been doing…" she kept thinking hard as Laxus froze in his spot with wide eyes.

"Hey Laxus by any chance am I your mat-"

"Got to go gramps is calling me." He dashed before the blonde even continued her question.

"Laxus?!" she shouted behind his retreating figure "Damn, why is he so hard?!" the blonde mumbled as she continued her descent to the hotel cafeteria, the games wouldn't start till later so she still had time to kill.

Out of nowhere, she felt someone watching her, the hairs on her neck stood up and she quickly turned around to see if someone was behind her except to find no one and the feeling to lessen "That's weird, I could've sworn I felt someone behind me." She let out a shaky breath as she continued ahead.

XXX

Screams echoed around the abandoned cell as the servant stood on a barely moving body holding a whip "Now answer me, what do you want with Lucy Heartfilia? And why are you searching for END?"

The beaten man whimpered slightly as he shook his head not knowing what to answer, he opted to lie so he did "I don't know what you're talking about." He didn't want the other man to know what he is planning, but his resolve was slowly breaking by this constant torture.

The servant sighed and shook his head "Foolish move." The whip connected with the bare back of man chained to the floor. "Now let's try again, we know that you kidnapped the maiden of the stars to use as a leverage as you questioned some fairy pests about END, so do you wish to cooperate now?"

The man whimpered again and weakly nodded his head, the servant smiled a deranged smile "Wah, who would've know that you could be obedient?" he then frowned "But I just started to have fun though…"

He looked towards the other chained man "It appears that you got a cellmate Ivan Dreyar."

The said man meekly looked up before his eyes dropped, he couldn't hold himself any longer, he felt his energy leave him, he felt he was terribly close to death's door, and he only felt one thing… regret.

He regretted how he turned on his father, on how he treated his only son, on betraying the guild, on leaving, on defying and mocking everything that his father taught him, because he knew that if he never did any of those things, he wouldn't be here right now.

The servant continued to torture the man to get all the answers he wanted from him, when he was done he killed said man and left the cell. He shouldn't have killed him and he knew his master was going to be mad at him, the order was clear, interrogate the man and keep him alive. At least half of the order was done correctly.

Arriving at the throne room he saw his master gazing into a lacrima, and upon closer inspection he noticed who he was gazing upon, it was the blonde walking down a corridor, he looked up and saw the sadistic smile on his master's face as the blonde turned around in fear. He shut off the lacrima once he noticed the servant's presence.

"So…"

The servant bowed "The man did not know who she was, he just wanted to use her as leverage, END was his main goal as he is a follower of Zeref and wishes to accomplish killing the black wizard by summoning the demon."

At this the master chuckled "Fool man, he will soon give up."

He watched as his servant squirmed in his place, he sighed and asked quietly "You killed him didn't you?"

Now the servant was on both knees and his head buried in them "Please excuse me master I got carried away, I- I didn't mean to-"

"Be quiet!" the master's voice boomed and the servant quickly shut his mouth "Leave…"

The servant got up and hurried away, the master looked to his right at a torn picture of a blonde with long red slim horns and a red crown, he looked down at her scarlet lips as he tried to remember the feel of them on his lips, he groaned at the distant barely felt memory and tried to relax himself "Not long Lucilia, and I will feel those lips again, hold you again, and with you by my side, rule the underworld again."


	18. Chapter 18

…

Lucy reached the cafeteria and let her eyes wonder on the people eating there, she saw her former team, her current team and her brothers, plus all the other members of the Sabertooth guild.

Her eyes landed on her team's table, a huge blond lightning dragon slayer was missing from the members. The blonde sighed as she shook her head, she will catch him later and confront him about it for sure, for she was positive that she was his mate, and she didn't understand why was he so nervous, they kissed a couple of times now and she is sure that she has feelings for him, though according to her brother it's a commitment for life, so maybe that's why he still hasn't talked to her about it.

She shook her head once again, she was overthinking this matter and it wasn't going to do her any good. She spotted her brother and his lover chatting together and made a beeline towards them, she hopped in front of them with a smirk playing on her face and they both knew that they were about to get interrogated badly.

She giggled evilly as she took a seat on their table and crossed her arms "So…"

Midnight shivered at his sister's look and gulped "So…?"

She brought her arms on the table and laid her chin on her hands as she smiled innocently "When shall I expect the wedding? Also can I please help with the planning, I know some great places and know a lot of shops that you guys can get discounts on-"

"Lu~" Midnight whined as he slammed his head on the table "See this is why we didn't tell you, we all knew you have a secret Mira hidden deep inside."

The blonde gasped in mock hurt "Excuse me?! I am nothing like Mira when it comes to matchmaking," the blonde widened her eyes then feigned innocence "Wait a minute, what will she do in this kind of situation?" she started muttering as she put her forefinger under her lip and started tapping her chin, she seemed to be in deep thought when her eyes lighted up and she smirks "Ah, why not go ask her?"

Midnight and Rogue's eyes widened as they finally understood what she was doing, she dashed towards the door as Midnight looked at Rogue "Get her!"

Rogue quickly nodded and sunk into his shadows as he went after the blonde while Midnight ran towards the exit while yelling for Lucy to wait up.

All this while, Sting was watching while shaking his head and muttering about how his twin was now related to a family of lunatics. Sting looked over the railing to the second floor and sighed, too many idiots in the morning is bad for him, he looked at the brooding bulk of a dragon slayer and climbed up the stairs.

Reaching the second floor, he took a seat and turned to the other blond "You are an idiot you know?"

Laxus huffed out a response "I know."

"You should just tell her, she deserves to know." Sting laid his chin on the palm of his hand as he confronted the lightning slayer.

"So should you." Laxus shot back as he slumped in the chair in front of Sabertooth's master.

Sting closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair while putting his hands behind his head "My story is more complicated than yours, you both have feelings for each other while in my case it's only one sided."

"It could change if you confronted her about it." The lightning dragon slayer put his feet on the table and leaned back in his chair.

"And you could stop the chase of cat and mouse if you confronted her as well." Sting retorted at the elder slayer.

"No point anyway, she knows." Laxus stated calmly while Sting almost fell from his chair.

"What!? How the hell did she know? I know for a fact you didn't tell her or else she'd already be marked knowing you." Sting remarked half astonished half sarcastic at the other blond to which the latter growled at him.

"It appears that my mate is some kind of genius who figured this whole thing out, she started listing things I did and compared them to what her brother told her, then she asked me if she was my mate."

Sting stared wide eyed at the man before him "And what did you do?"

Laxus averted his eyes from the man and kept his quiet, he didn't want to tell him of this embarrassing moment that happened, the moment where he ran away from his mate because she cornered him with the mate matter.

Sting kept his eyes wide as he slowly started cackling before it turned into a full blown laughter, he held his stomach as he rolled out of the chair landing on the ground, in between his laughing hysteric he managed to utter out a "You fucking bolted didn't you?!"

Laxus glared at the laughing idiot who was rolling on the ground before him, he growled out "I will fucking electrocute you if you don't stop this second dickhead."

Sting started panting and his chest heaving from the lack of oxygen that he was experiencing due to his laughter, he calmed down and recomposed his self, he looked at the other slayer and shook his head while wiping away his tears "Why the hell didn't you tell her, it was the perfect moment."

Laxus got up and was about to leave, he couldn't handle any more of this madness, but was stopped by Sting's words, "You are lucky you know, at least she looks at you with affection man, at least she glances your way and is not going after your twin. Don't lose her Laxus-san!"

Laxus looked back at Sting to see him with a small smirk on his face, he shot him an appreciative smirk and stated "I won't and neither should you, you could still change this you know." And then he descended the stairs, leaving behind him a saddened light dragon slayer. Sting got up and leaned on the railing, his eyes traveled to his mate that was chatting with the blonde, they seem to have captured Lucy and brought her back.

Lucy was chatting so happily and carefree, she didn't even have time to notice that someone was looking at her with a bit of envy before he quickly masked it away, he wished his mate could one day speak to him like she does to Lucy. He hoped that her crush on Rogue would fade and love for him would form, he wished for so much but he couldn't force her into this, it would be wrong to do so. Rogue knew that she had a crush on him and turned her down a lot of times, but even so she still has feelings for him, which Sting didn't understand why she still did.

"I hope I could change this Laxus-san, I really do." He breathed out before descending the stairs as well to get something to eat.

…

Lucy hid in the shadows as she waited for her target to round the corner, currently she was in her Corvus's form so she hid her scent and sunk in the shadows as she waited, and waited, and waited for who knows how long.

She was starting to lose hope when she heard his voice down the corridor, he was returning from his match that was easily won. He was walking lazily his coat was flowing from the slight breeze that came from the open area of the corridor, he was getting closer to the area so Lucy readied herself and waited for the moment she would spot his blond head and his infamous scar.

That moment soon came, Lucy leaped out of the shadows surprising the blond before grabbing him and sinking him in the shadows with her, she took them to a broom closet where she got them both out of the shadows, he was laying on the floor while she was on top of him while holding his wrists down, she smirked in victory her dark orbs glistening in mirth "Got'cha!"

His eyes narrowed in the dark before they readjusted and he could see Lucy's blonde hair, his eyes widened as he now realized the position they were in "Lucy…?"

"Hai!" she chirped as she smiled brightly at him.

Too much was happening all together, and he felt there was something different about Lucy so he sparked his hands, and that's when he realized what was different.

Dark orbs looked at him in awe at the lightning in his hands, it was illuminating him so beautifully in the dark, the yellow lightning was outlining his blond hair making it shine more and the ragged scar on his right eye was more visible, to Lucy he looked like a god, but to Laxus, Lucy looked ethereal.

The lightning was reflected in her dark orbs, her scarlet lips were slightly open in awe and some blonde locks were falling from her pulled up hair. He couldn't get his eyes off of her face and it appears to be the same for her, she couldn't stop staring at him.

Time appears to slow down as the only thing they could hear were their own heartbeats, the cheering of the crowd that sounded in the whole auditorium faded away in the background, all that was now was the two of them.

"So-", Lucy started but was interrupted by Laxus.

"Yes."

Lucy looked confusingly at him before she asked "Yes for what?"

Laxus closed his eyes and heaved a sigh, he wasn't good with feelings he knew that, and confessing in the broom closet was the last thing he thought he was going to do today, so he took a deep breath and prepared himself "Yes Blondie, you are my mate." He opened his eyes to look at his mate's reaction.

Lucy widened her eyes, sure she suspected as much but still hearing it from him was a completely different feeling.

"When did you-"

"I knew you were my mate since the… incident." Lucy knew what he was referring to, the time at his house when they almost slept together but then she ran away and he lost his cool.

"The snake back then explained it to me, but I guess deep down I always knew." Laxus heaved a sigh as he felt this immense weight lifted off his shoulders, he knew after this there was no going back.

"What do you mean you always knew?" Lucy questioned as she gazed into his blue grey eyes.

"My dragon always yearned for you, your touch, your smile, your smell, everything that is you. At the time he did I did as well, I started paying attention to what you say, what makes you laugh, what you like most and that kind of stuff." Laxus looked away feeling flustered with the things he just said, it was true though, everything he said was true.

"Laxus…" Lucy caressed his cheek with her thumb gently "Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

Laxus closed his eyes once again, to him this was the hard part, for this time he was going to open up about everything "Honestly, you were always with your team, I never caught you alone, and when I wanted to make a move I found out you were going out with some dude so I just backed away, I didn't want to though, it took everything in me to not mark you as mine whenever I saw you."

He wanted to say more but he couldn't, his mind wouldn't let him, he wanted to tell her how much it hurt him to hear her talking about someone else, to have Natsu always around her, Gray as well. He couldn't tell her that when she started hanging out with the trio and sometimes had sleepovers, he wanted nothing more than to fry them to dust, he couldn't tell her that. She doesn't need to know the pain she caused him whenever she came from the guild smelling like the guy she was seeing, it was no point to it anyway, she would only get hurt and he would get angry.

Lucy stayed silent, she remembered the guy she was seeing, it was at the time the guild was disbanded and she needed comfort, she found some of it in the arms of her co-worker, he would be responsible for her photo shoots so they spent a lot of time together, and soon enough they were dating. They broke up after two months from when the guild was brought back together, though it was not because of the guild, it was simply because they both drifted away and thought it better to end things.

Lucy looked at Laxus's eyes and took a glimpse of the fleeting pain that mirrored in them, and she knew she hurt him somehow, from what her brother told her it must have drove him mad to hear her talk about some other guy, smell like another guy and such.

Lucy's form faded as she laid her head on his chest while she muttered a soft "I'm sorry."

Laxus's eyes widened upon hearing the soft apology and was about to ask her about what she was sorry about when she continued "It must have hurt whenever I talked about him, or even smelled like him, I truly am sorry Laxus."

Laxus laid on his back, the blonde on top of him, and the lightning sizzling in his hand, he released his lightning and embraced the blonde in a suffocating hug.

"Don't worry about it." It was this small whisper that made the blonde lose her composure and start sniffling, he just tightened his hold on her as she continued to sob quietly, soon after she returned his hug.

They stayed like that for a while before Lucy broke free from his grasp, she looked at the bulk of a man before her and smiled sweetly at him "Hey Blondie, wanna go on a date with me?"

Laxus's eyebrows shot through his hairline, he then smirked and tangled his hands together behind his head "Don't know, gotta check my schedule."

Lucy started swatting him on his chest while he chuckled at her "Such a big meanie you are."

He held her little hand and stopped her continuous onslaught on him "Yeah, yeah I am." he brought her close and crashed his lips on hers, the kiss was sweet and full of love, yet it was short because Laxus wants to take this slow, he pulled away and kissed her forehead while she giggled.

"Hey Laxus, mind using your lightning so we could see the door?" Lucy tried to get up but kept falling down on him and Laxus was too busy chuckling at her clumsiness to realize the danger nearing them, or better yet that got to them.

"No worries Luce I got you." both blondes widened their eyes upon hearing the fire dragon slayer's voice.

He opened the door and grinned at them, the light from the corridor illuminating the room and Natsu could clearly see the position they were in. He gave them a thumbs up and his classic Natsu smile "Way to go Luce."

Lucy's face morphed into horror at what her best friend said, while Laxus was just shaking his head muttering curses to the fire idiot.

"Listen up idiot, don't you dare go blabbering your mouth, or I will fry you, got that Natsu?" Laxus growled at the pink haired slayer, to which the latter shivered and saluted him, "HAI! Don't worry I will not tell anyone that Lucy is your mate."

"WHAT!?"

Upon hearing the new voice, Lucy's soul could be seen floating away from her body, Laxus paled while Natsu shivered once again, gulping he turned around to face the presence behind him, the demonic aura surrounding the room intensified once the position Lucy and Laxus were in was visible.

"Lucy, it seems like we have some important things to talk about." They sent them the creepiest smile that anyone has ever seen, Lucy's whole body tingled in fear as she nodded her head furiously "Hai, Mira-san!"

XXX

He threw away the lacrima and it shattered on the ground, the floor beneath him started to rumble as purple light started to appear, it broke apart as he growled out in rage "HOW DARE HE!?"

The servant scrambled to the room to see it in rumbles, he looked around till his eyes landed on his master, surrounded by thick thorny rose vines that seemed to have shot out from the ground.

"Master…?" he whispered softly hoping not to anger his master more.

A vine shot through his shoulder as he let out a scream of pain "You incompetent fool, get out of here NOW!"

The servant dashed out of the room fearing for his life as he clutched to his bleeding shoulder, the master was now heaving from the anger he felt when Lucy asked Laxus out on a date, he felt betrayed and thanked the heavens that he only listened to that part and not the whole thing.

Soon he calmed down and sat on his beaten down throne, he laid his head on his hand as he closed his eyes and smirked while caressing the picture of the demon queen "Lucilia, why are you going after such an inferior being when you have the underworld king waiting for you?"

**Hey everyone, how are you doing?**

**I gotta say thank you so much for sticking around, I was looking at some older chapters and it was evident that they were not that good, I can only hope I got better, so thank you so much for giving me a chance.**

**Anyway, I guess now it's pretty obvious who the master is, right?**

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter, Arigato and Sayonara.**


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